Pokemon Evolution
by xXPokePotterIslandXx
Summary: The Total Drama characters are teenage Pokemon at the typical age of evolution. In order to speed up the process, their teacher has organised some "special lessons". Will our favourite campers survive the lessons, or will they choose not to evolve at all? AU DXC, GXT, GXB. Rated because I'm paranoid!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own the either the Pokémon or Total Drama franchise.**

Courtney's POV:

_Wind whistles through my fur as I run. Blades of grass gently prick the pads on my paws. With a cry of joy, I begin to roll and tumble through the meadow, breathing in the sweet scent of the rich soil. Panting for breath, I lie on my back and gaze at the sky. There are no clouds, only blue, and the sun. I stare up at it. It doesn't hurt. It's warmth wraps around me protectively and its light slowly grows brighter. And brighter. And brighter still. Until all I can see is a blinding white light. The comfortable warmth becomes a painful burning that clutches at every nerve and muscle. I grit my teeth and swallow the scream fast building in my throat. And all the while the light is growing brighter. And brighter…_

My eyes fly open and I leap to my feet, gasping and panting. I stay like that for a while. Eventually, my breathing slows down and I'm finally able to accept that it was nothing more than a dream. I frown. It's never taken me that long to shake of a dream. It's worrying. Dreams are impractical, if I spent all my days thinking about silly, meaningless dreams then I would never get anything done. No, it's far better to let them slip away completely.

I give myself a brisk shake to let go of any residue dream-thoughts and trot over to the mirror hanging on my bedroom wall. I look at myself for a bit before throwing my head back in a groan. My brown fur is damp with sweat, and the fluffy creamruff around my neck has hairs sticking out at odd angles. In short, I look a mess.

Growling with annoyance, I set to work licking the offending fur down so it's nice and smooth. It's hard going, especially with those hard to reach places on my big, fluffy tail, but I eventually succeed. I'm contemplating how many more hours of sleep I'll be able to squeeze in when my mother pushes the door open. "Good morning Courtney!" Zero, turns out.

I notice my mother has an odd spring in her step as she walks and keeps glancing hopeful looks my way as she pulls poképuffs out of the pantry for breakfast. Maybe she found a new university that will accept students my age?

The temperature of the room subtly rises. I look to the doorway and, sure enough, there's dad. "Good morning family!" My mother waves one of her ribbon-like feelers at him in reply as she sets down a plate of poképuffs for me. I frown at them. Pink? But she knows I don't like pink.

Dad walks over and ruffles the fur on my head fondly. "Here's my little champion!" He then pulls me into a one-armed hug. My eyes widen. It's nice that my dad's being affectionate and all, but he's so fluffy, a mere hug can lead to death by suffocation. "Aw, just think. Any day now, my little girl will be all grown up! I don't envy the choice you have to make. Though…" he leans forward and whispers in my ear conspiratorially, "I know you'll definitely choose the right one." Somehow, through my struggle for air, I make some sense of what he's saying and frown. Choice? What choice? How can I make the right choice if I don't know what the choice is? Will I have to research the choice? I can't ask my parents; they'll be so disappointed to know that I don't know what the choice is! Maybe my classmates will know what the choice is. But what if they don't? Then how will I make the right choice?

Dad winks at me before grabbing a poképuff from the counter and heading out the door, calling a quick goodbye over his shoulder as he went. Mother shoots me another hopeful smile. I pretend not to notice and start stuffing poképuffs into my mouth to avoid any more conversation about the mysterious "choice".

**AN: So…any thoughts? The first few chapters will be mostly Courtney centric, but the other characters will definitely have some spotlight! Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Courtney's POV:

I run as fast as I can to school. I need to ask my friends if their parents mentioned a "choice". Right after I put my books away and prepare for my first classes of course.

I fit my key into the padlock of my locker and swing the door open. I pull out my schedule from my backpack. Let's see…first up is English and biology. I grab the books I need and swing the door shut with a satisfying _clang_. I breathe a sigh of contentment. Oh, it's good to be organised. But my satisfaction is short lived. How can I be organised when I have an apparently important choice to make that I don't even know? I have to talk to my friends.

"Courtney!" I look up just in time to jump out of the way as one of my friends comes skidding across the floor. She scrambles around, yelping in surprise, as she accidently knocks several unfortunate students over. When her mad slide finally draws to a halt, I run over to her, supressing a groan. "Bridgette, how many times do I have to tell you? There's a reason why we aren't allowed to run in the halls!" Bridgette's only answer is a sheepish smile.

Like me, Bridgette is an eevee. Unlike me, however, she is a common shiny, whereas I'm just a common. While I have brown fur, Bridgette's is a soft blond, and her ruff and tail tip are light grey as opposed to my cream.

Bridgette pushes herself to her feet and shakes herself. "I know, I know Courtney, but there's something I really have to tell you! Did you see the notice board today?" I shake my head. Bridgette's olive-green eyes are shining with excitement and her tail is wagging. "The school is starting a compulsory programme to help speed along our evolution!" I blink at her. Our evolution? My heart sinks. I think I know what the choice is now. Bridgette doesn't seem to notice my reaction to the news and continues happily. "And because of the programme, we don't have classes for the next three weeks." My jaw drops. No classes? But we had three tests scheduled for this week! And we're supposed to be starting a new project in economics! Missing three weeks of classes will leave me behind! Courtney is never behind!

This time, Bridgette does notice my reaction and sighs. "Courtney, it's not a big deal. All the classes in our year will have to do this, we're just the first. You won't fall behind."

"But other classes aren't missing weeks of projects and tests!" I shriek. Other Pokémon are casting glances our way, but I don't care. How can Bridgette be so nonchalant about all this?

Bridgette rolls her eyes. "We'll still have to do the tests Courtney. Think of it as extra time to study, okay?" she grins at me excitedly. "Besides, this is evolution we're talking about here! The next stage of our lives! Tell me that's not exciting!" It's not exciting. I know exactly which eeveelution my parents want me to become. And I know it's one I definitely don't want to be.

**AN: Here's chapter 2! If any of you are confused by the "common" and "common shiny" thing, I decided to make oddly coloured Pokémon who didn't have the typical shiny colouration, mostly to help make the character's appearances more similar to their human appearances. "Commons" are normal-coloured Pokémon and are the most (duh) common. "Common shinys" are shiny Pokémon who don't have typical shiny colouring and are the second most common. Thanks for reading and please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: A big thank you to Warhammer4Life for the welcome and the warning about the bullies of this site. You rule!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Duncan's POV:

The bell rings just as I've finished stuffing all the toilet rolls I won't get to use in my locker. I planned on using them to TP the cafeteria this afternoon, but it looks like I won't get the chance with that evolution programme that's going on. I smirk at the thought of no classes for the next three weeks. Dad will explode when I tell him! I chuckle at the thought and saunter down the hallway. Students and teachers give me mistrusting looks as I pass. I shrug it off. I was classified as "untrustworthy" from the moment I hatched.

I push open the door to my homeroom and trudge to my desk next to Geoff. "So glad you could finally join us, Duncan." I glare at the mightyena at the front of the room. He's a common shiny, with navy blue fur instead of grey. He flashes a blindingly white smile at the class. Arceus, how much teeth whitener does he use?

"Alright class. For those of you who don't know, there are no classes for the next three weeks. Instead, you all will be completing a series of challenges designed by yours truly to speed up your evolutions!"

A shiny buneary wearing a blue headscarf raises her paw, her big blue eyes wide with confusion. I roll my eyes. Come on, even Lindsay should have been able to understand that!

"Excuse me, Kyle McLoud? What's evolution?" Never mind.

Chris face palms and sighs dramatically. "It's where your form changes into a stronger one. And for the zillionth time, Lindsay, it's Chris McLean!" Lindsay taps her chin thoughtfully before replying. "But I don't want my form to change! I like the form I have now! It's pretty!"

"Lindsay, for palkia's sake, how can you not know about your own evolution?" I grin as a new, bossy voice enters the argument. This is gonna be fun. "You evolve into lopunny Lindsay! And lopunnies are even prettier than bunearies! You'll look even better!" Lindsay just gives the bristling eevee sitting behind her a blank look. "What's a buneary?" At this, Courtney just bangs her head on the table. I tilt my head and regard her in mock sympathy. "Aw, is princess getting frustrated?" She glares daggers at me. "Shut up, Duncan!"

Chris just watched the whole argument with a big grin on his face, but now, he reluctantly orders us to calm down so he can explain the programme.

"There will be a new task to do every day. Some tasks will mean you have to stay at the site of the task overnight. By the end of the three weeks, hopefully I'll be staring at a classroom of evolved students. If the programme fails to speed up your evolution, tough! Any questions?"

A common shiny absol with a black face, scythe, claws and tail, blue fur and onyx eyes raises their paw. "if we can't evolve, can we sit this out?" Chris grins. "I'm glad you asked Gwen! And the answer is…no! If your one of the poor suckers who'll be stuck in one form for the rest of their life, or if you evolve before the end of the programme, you still have to stick it out until the end of the three weeks." A sawsbuck with its horns in full summer bloom sighs. "Guess that means I have to do this too, huh?"

"Correctamundo, DJ! Courtney, you have a question?"

"What if we require certain conditions to evolve? Or need an evolution stone?" Chris chuckles. "Well then, you're just gonna have to hope that one of our locations has the right conditions or has evolution stones lying around! What?" Chris adds defensively at princess's glare, "Evolution stones are expensive! If you need one, that's your problem! Duncan?"

"What if your family doesn't want you to evolve?" Everyone stares at me awkwardly. I roll my eyes. What, did they think my arcanine family wants a houndoom in their house?

Like most houndour and poochyena living in society and not in the wild, I'm adopted. My arcanine ma and pa have spent the past sixteen years trying to train me to be a "productive member of society". FYI, they failed. Miserably.

Chris blinks at me. "Well…I guess you can just risk your family's wrath?" I shrug. Chris quickly recovers his composer and grins at us again. "I've also hired an old friend of mine to cook special meals for you while you're in the programme, you know, to give you all the vitamins and minerals you need for evolution. Your first activity begins today! We'll be heading out to this lovely lake I found. The trip should take you about an hour." A shiny purrloin with grey eyes raises an eyebrow. "Should take "you"?" Chris rolls his eyes. "What you think I'm going with you? I'll point you in the general direction you'll need to walk to get there. It's not hard to find. Once you're there, climb the big hill. I'll meet you at the top." The purrloin's eye twitches. "You expect me to _walk_ to this stupid challenge?" Chris smiles. "Yes, Heather, I do! See you all in an hour!"

**A/N: Whew! That was a long chapter! So yeah, I've decided to make Duncan adopted. I thought houndour/houndoom would be the most fitting Pokémon for him, but I wanted to keep his police-family, so, here's the solution! For those of you who are wondering why the programme isn't lasting eight weeks like in the show, I just have a really hard time believing that any school will let their students off lessons for that long. I actually think the three weeks I've settled on is a bit of a stretch, but I think it's the minimum amount of time it'll take for me to squeeze all of the activities in. Review, please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Gwen's POV:

I hate Chris. This stupid programme only exists to speed up evolution, so where's the logic in making me do it if I can't evolve! It's dumb!

I huff in annoyance as I trudge up the hill. You know what else is stupid? Making us walk all the way to the site of our first activity, and then having us climb an almost vertical "hill" the size of a mountain!

"You can bet that going on an exhausting walk wasn't in my plans for today. That's what gym class is for!" I smirk as Leshawna trots up next to me. "You forgot that Heather is included on this walk." The growlithe rolls her eyes. "As if I could forget that spoiled little daddy's girl! Though Arceus knows I want to!" I snigger at this.

Leshawna is a common shiny growlithe, with brown fur where you'd normally see orange. She's a good friend of mine, especially since we share the same favourite pastime: pranking Heather.

"Gwen! What's up?" I shut my eyes and supress a groan as a pichu jogs over to walk beside me. "So…no classes for the next three weeks! Cool, Huh?"

"Yeah Cody."

"Leaves us with a lot of free time!"

"Uh-huh."

"So, I was thinking…maybe we could go out on Friday?"

"No."

"Saturday then?"

"No."

"How about Sun-" I silence Cody with a look. I really don't have the patience to deal with this right now. Cody smiles nervously. "Well…if you ever change your mind, the offer still stands!"

"Good to know." I reply with an eye-roll. Don't get me wrong, Cody's a nice guy and all, but he's like a little brother to me. A really annoying little brother.

DJ's shriek of terror somewhere ahead of us snaps my gaze upward. Leshawna and I share a glance before taking off after the noise. I feel a little guilty as Cody puffs and pants trying to keep up, but I can't help that my legs are longer! He'll become faster when he evolves.

Leshawna and I finally reach the top. Some of our classmates are already there. DJ is looking down the other side of the hill, his face pale. I walk over to his side and see why. This isn't a hill; it's a cliff! A really, really high cliff overlooking the lake (which, for some bizarre reason, has two rings flouting on its surface).

Even after the rest of the students finally caught up, we had to wait another ten minutes for Chris to show his smug face. He pretends not to notice our heated glares as he climbs off the quadbike he used to drive up the cliff and addresses us.

"Welcome to the site of your first task: jumping off this one-thousand-foot-high cliff, into the lake!" Bridgette grins at a common shiny riolu with red and white markings instead of blue and black wearing a headband upon hearing this. "Piece of cake." I agree with her. I mean, sure, it's a one-thousand-foot-high cliff and jumping off it is just plain crazy, but it should be pretty easy. But Chris hasn't finished. "If you look down, you will see two target areas." So that's what those floating rings are. "The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic, heh, heh, wild sharpedo!" All the blood drains out of my face as I whirl around to face Chris, wide eyed. Sharpedo? What is wrong with this mightyena?

"Inside that area is a safe zone," Chris continues, "that's, your target area. Which…we're pretty sure is shark free." Leshawna gives him a look. "Excuse me?"

Courtney raises one of her paws. "Yes, Courtney?"

"How is this supposed to help us evolve?"

"Who's the teacher here, me or you?" A blue treecko with brown eyes and a red stomach raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure that "the teacher" is trying to kill us." Chris raises a paw to his chest. "I'm hurt! You guys know that I'd never do anything to harm you!" This is met by twenty-two eye-rolls.

Heather smiles smugly and I narrow my eyes. What's going on in that sneaky little pussy cat's mind? "What if we just choose not to jump?" Chris responds by reaching into a crate he brought with him and pulling out a hat shaped like a torchic. "Then you'll have to wear this torchic hat for the rest of the day." Heather's smug expression turns to one of disgust at the sight of the ugly hat.

A gorgeous vulpix with rich black fur raises a perfectly manicured paw. "Yes, Justin?"

"What if we're weak to water? This could actually harm us greatly." Justin's voice is warm and smooth, but Chris is unaffected by the vulpix's dulcet tones and grins his blindingly white teeth. "All the better for speeding you on the road to evolution!" Some other Pokémon raise their appendages, but Chris holds up a paw. "Sorry, no more questions! Start jumping!"

Bridgette walks over to the edge and looks down at the targets fearfully. "Oh, wow. So, who wants to go first?" Nobody answers. Who in their right mind would jump off a cliff into sharpedo-infested water?

A common shiny munchlax with blond fur instead of green chuckles. "Hey, don't sweat it Guys! I'm sure Chris would have gotten some other people to do this thing first to make sure it's survivable." Chris nods. "Yep! Your chef for the next three weeks jumped and survived just fine with only medium scarring!" Well that's reassuring.

A female machop wearing a blue gym suit addressed everyone. "So. Who's up?" Duncan's common shiny grey snout wrinkles into a smirk. "Ladies first." He says, looking at Courtney. Bridgette seems to think he's talking to her though, since she's the one who replies. "Fine. I'll go. It's no big deal. Just an insane cliff dive into a circle of angry sharpedo." As she finishes speaking, Bridgette jumps off the edge of the cliff in a graceful dive. Lucky for her, she manages to land right in the centre of the safe zone. She surfaces and waves up at us. A boat drives over and picks her up. Thank Arceus, Chris at least gave us a way to leave the water safely. The red and white riolu grins. "She did it! Yeah! Yeah! I'm next!" Tyler runs back a few steps, before running forward again and jumping of the cliff with an excited "Kowabunga!" If that riolu is that happy about jumping off a cliff, he needs to see a psychiatric. Instead of landing in the safe zone though, he lands on top of one of the buoys marking it out. With a groan of pain, he falls back into the safe zone, the buoy dinging merrily. None of us react, except to wince in sympathy. Tyler is always getting hurt.

The fact that two Pokémon made the jump helps several others get over their fear (or sanity) and follow suit. Geoff, a shiny chimchar with a cowboy hat, is the next jumper. He cheers excitedly as he falls. Forget Tyler, Geoff's the one who needs a psychiatric! He's a fire type! The water will only hurt him! The machop is next. I can hear Eva calling "Look out below!". The next jumper, Duncan, doesn't say anything, just falls silently. That's two fire types now. Don't these Pokémon care at all for their personal well-being?

The streak is broken by DJ, who steps back from the cliff, shaking his head. "Uh-uh. No way man. I'm not jumping." Chris smiles sympathetically. "Scared of heights?"

"Yeah, ever since I was a kid."

"That's okay big guy. Unfortunately," Chris continues, dropping the sympathy act and walking over to DJ, "that also makes you a torchic! So, you'll have to wear this for the rest of the day!" Chris places the torchic hat he showed us earlier on DJ's head, right between his antlers. DJ groans at his stupid new accessory. "Aw, man, for real?" Chris grins and starts making torchic noises, before shoving aside some bushes, revealing an escalator. Seriously? We walked all the way up here and there was an escalator?

Chris gestures to the metal stairs. "That means the chicken path down is this way. Next!"

A pale green rattata with a blue snow-hat stands at the edge of the cliff with his chest puffed out. Ezekiel takes a deep breath before jumping. At first, he's yelling out a happy "Yeehaw!" but it's cut short for some reason. Judging from the cheers by the people who already jumped though, he made it to the safe zone. A glasses-wearing froakie is watching from the edge of the cliff. Harold pumps his fist and cries out "Yes!" presumably after Ezekiel safely lands. Harold jumps off the cliff, screaming with joy, but it soon becomes a scream of pain. I rush over to the edge and see why. He landed in the safe zone, but also wound up doing the splits. Chris, who also saw, remarks (with absolutely no sympathy), "Ooh, hate to see that happen!" Courtney is the next one standing at the edge of the cliff. She turns to Chris and explains that she has a medical condition. "What condition?" Chris replies. "A condition that prevents me from jumping off cliffs?" Courtney sarcastically explains. As a reward for her sanity, Chris gives her a torchic hat.

I grit my teeth as a pair of familiar high-pitched voices squeal as they jump off the cliff. Katie and Sadie, AKA, the pink plusle and minun who make my ears bleed. They land in the safe zone. Pity. I could've done without their constant squealing in my life.

There's only eleven of us left. Heather turns her head to the side. "I'm sorry. There's no way I'm doing this." A green dedenne with thick glasses and braces brings one paw up to her face worriedly. "Why not?" Heather raises an eyebrow at Beth. "Uh, hello, we're jumping into water! I'll get my fur wet!" I look at her incredulously. I know Heather's a spoiled little princess, but this is ridiculous! "You're kidding right?" Lindsay places one pretty little paw on her hip and declares, "If she's not doing it, I'm not doing it!" Heather and Lindsay smile at each other. Ugh, why did my class have to be the one with the two spoiled brats? Leshawna steps forwards and growls at Heather. "Oh, you're doing it!" Heather stands up on her hind legs and folds her arms. "Says who?"

"Says me, you're not getting out of this activity cus' you got your hair dig, you spoiled little daddy's girl!" Heather bares her teeth at the insult. "Back off, ghetto glamour, too-tight, pants-wearing, rap-star wannabe!" Oh my Arceus, she did not just say that! Leshawna, growing angrier by the second, is quick to retort: "Mall-shopping, pony-tail-wearing, teen-girl-reading, peaking-in-high-school prom queen." Heather raises an eyebrow and smirks. "Well at least I'm, popular." My eyes widen with shock. Oh no, Heather did not just play that card! That's low, even for her! Leshawna's voice rises to a roar. "Your jumping!"

"Make me!" Heather hisses back. So she does. Is there a sight more beautiful than Leshawna gripping the scruff of Heather's neck between her teeth and flinging her off a one-thousand-foot-high cliff? I highly doubt it.

Heather's voice calls up from somewhere far below. "Leshawna! You are so dead!"

"Hey, I threw you into the safe zone, didn't I?" She did what? We could have been rid of that queen bee for good! Leshawna's confident smile fades. "Now I just hope I can hit it too." With that, she jumps off the cliff, screaming the whole way down. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see her head bobbing in the safe zone.

"I thought this was going to be a talent contest!" Lindsay's whining voice pulls my gaze away from the water. Chris chuckles at her stupidity. "Ha, ha, ha, yeah! Ha, ha ha! No." With a last, terrified glance at the targets, Lindsay jumps, screaming and flailing her legs. I sigh. Well, no use putting it off any longer. I jump.

Yeah, Tyler, Geoff, Harold and Ezekiel all need to see a psychiatric. Actually, scratch that, they need to be put in a madhouse! There is nothing fun or exhilarating about the wind whistling through my fur, or how fast the water rushes up to meet me. I'm screaming my head off. Why wouldn't I be? I'm going to die!

Suddenly, the buffeting wind is replaced by water as I splash into the lake. I look around under the water. There are the sharpedo, all right. But between them and me is a net. I smile with relief. I'm in the safe zone.

I surface just in time to see Cody falling towards me. His blue eyes are huge with terror and his arms and legs are flailing desperately, as if he'll suddenly become a flying type and fly out of there. I back-paddle a little before the screaming pichu can land on top of me. I've just jumped off a cliff, am soaking wet and am mere metres away from wild sharpedo; I don't need to deal with Cody's flirting as well.

The boat comes over and picks us both up. I promptly shake the water from my fur and stand next to Leshawna.

A delighted scream follows an emolga with green fur instead of white and ginger fur in place of the usual black. Izzy is keeping the stretched membrane between her appendages tightly closed so she won't be able to glide out of her fall. Why is she making sure she falls, I hear you ask? Because she's Izzy; she's a grade-A psycho.

This isn't just my personal opinion by the way. Once, a hypno used her as one of his subjects for his science project (can't remember what it was) and had to take the rest of the week off because of what he saw in her freaky green and ginger head. When he came back to school, he confirmed what we all already suspected: Izzy is straight-up insane.

As soon as the crazy emolga lands in the lake, the water begins to crackle with electricity. Several paralysed sharpedo float belly-up out of the water. Izzy pokes her head out of the water, still laughing. I inch back a few steps as she jumps up onto the boat. Can you blame me?

Justin is the next to jump. His dive is as beautiful as his silky black fur. He gracefully slides into the water. Outside. Of. The. Safe. Zone!

Leshawna, Cody and I all start screaming at him to get out of there. The world can't afford to lose his beautiful face! My heart just about stops as he turns to look at the fast incoming sharpedo. My kind are supposed to be able to foresee disasters! Why couldn't I foresee this? The sharpedos' heads break through the water; their jaws open wide to swallow Justin whole. I choke on my own breath. But then…they stop. The sharpedo close their jaws and stare wonderingly at the dripping wet vulpix smiling charmingly at them. Their eyes shimmer, and their mouths, only moments ago opened for the kill, pull up into soppy smiles. I blink several times in shock at the sight unfolding before me. I even give myself a swift pinch as the sharpedo carry Justin all the way back to the beach.

I shake myself and look up at the next jumper. It's Beth. I roll my eyes. I don't need any kind of foresight to know that she won't have the guts to pull this off. I'm proven right when she turns to say something to Chris and he pulls out another torchic hat. Leshawna and Cody immediately start making torchic noises. I don't join in. Oh yeah, like _they_ weren't terrified of jumping one-thousand-feet. I shoot a glare at the beach when I hear Lindsay say to Heather: "That was like, so lame. Right?"

"Fully, lame." Heather agrees. I snarl. Neither of them would have jumped if Leshawna hadn't thrown Heather off a cliff! What right do they have to go insulting Beth? I swear I just want to tear them both to pieces! Especially Heather! Lindsay's just too dumb to do anything other than what Heather tells her to anyway.

"Yeaaaaaah!" I turn to frown at the next idiot to, for some reason, is enjoying this "lesson". But my frown winds up looking more like a tiny smile and an eye roll as a green rockruff with black paws and a black muzzle and dark green underbelly and ruff splashes into the water. I extend a paw to help Trent out of the water. Just to be clear, I'm only doing this because he's a rock type, and the water would be pretty painful for him. Yep. That's it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the chance to see him flash me a friendly smile, or to see the glitter of sunlight in his emerald green eyes…wait, what was I saying? Oh, right, helping Trent!

He smiles at me as I tug him onto the deck. "Hey, thanks!" I rub my foreleg, embarrassed. "Oh, it's no problem, really!" I resist the urge to fan myself. Wow, it's really hot today!

Leshawna tosses Trent a pink spray bottle. "Here! Chris at least had the decency to provide us water-weak Pokémon with hyper potions to help us heal up! He knows that if his students are injured too badly, the school board will be all up in his fur for weeks!" She chuckles wryly, "And we all know he ain't wanting that!" Trent laughs with her for a bit before spraying some fine mist from the bottle. He breaths it in deeply. I watch as the water dries from his pelt, and as his fur briefly gains a nice, glossy look to it. Not that I like the way he looks, or anything.

I blink in surprise at the next screaming, flailing Pokémon. Noah actually jumped? I pinch myself again. Yep, still awake. The sarcastic brown and red treecko actually jumped off the cliff. Huh, maybe I underestimated him.

He tumbles into the safe zone. Trent jumps back into the water to help him to the boat. My jaw drops. He's just going to hurt himself all over again. Before I can say anything, however, Chris's voice bellowing through a megaphone snaps my attention to the top of the cliff, where only Owen the blond munchlax is standing.

"Okay students," Chris's annoying voice sounds through the megaphone. That guy has an unhealthy obsession with that thing. He used to bring it to school until the rest of the staff started complaining about how it was making it harder for them to teach.

"There's only one Pokémon left! Practically all of you have jumped! Even Noah, the lazy weakling jumped! Heck even the fire and rock types jumped!" Chris turns away from the megaphone briefly to talk to Owen directly. I strain my ears and just manage to pick up the words: "No pressure dude." Owen looks relieved. Until Chris adds into the megaphone: "Okay, there's pressure!" Did I mention how much I hate Chris? Because I really, really hate Chris.

Everyone begins cheering for Owen to jump. Even I join in, though personally I think that if he jumps this, he's gonna die.

Owen tugs on some water wings and takes a few deep breaths. I remember watching him struggling to growlithe-paddle in the pool once. Yeah, he's definitely gonna die.

Owen begins walking back a few steps. Chris calls after him to "Take a good run at it buddy! You can do this!" whilst flashing his trademark grin. Owen mutters something, but he's too far away for me to hear.

We've stopped cheering and are just staring up at the munchlax on the cliff. Owen grips his paws into tight fists. He shuts his eyes tight before opening them up again. I flick my eyes to Noah and Trent, who are still in the water, staring up at the jagged cliff's-edge. "Come on, big guy." Comes Leshawna's quiet voice. Owen shuts his eyes tight again. He's going to back out, I'm sure of it!

But, to my complete and utter shock, Owen starts running. He opens his eyes and gives a determined roar as he passes a shocked Chris. He reaches the edge. He jumps.

His roar quickly dissolves into a scream of terror. I follow the path of his fall. I sag with relief when I see that he's heading for the safe zone. But immediately grit my teeth in sympathy at the two guys still in the water: Trent and Noah.

I don't see any more. Funny how a tidal wave can do that to you. Seriously, how much does that guy eat? I know he's a munchlax and that's what they do, but that splash was just ridiculous! It's landed all of us kids sprawling in various positions on the beach. Cody's head wound up actually buried in the sand! And I'm pretty sure there was a sharpedo sitting in a tree afterward. Owen doesn't seem to notice the destruction his splash has wrought and pumps his fists saying, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah, who's the munchlax!"

We all shake off our residue shock and start cheering for Owen and his miraculous survival. We cheer even louder when Chris megaphone's down from the top of the cliff, saying that all we have to do is head back to school for lunch and then we can all head home.

By the time we get back to the school (surprise, surprise, Chris made us walk again) The day has almost finished. My stomach growls and I sigh. I can't wait for lunch.

"Listen up! I serve it once or twice a day, and you'll eat it once or twice a day! Grab a tray, get your food, and sit your butts down now!" I can wait for lunch.

The "chef" Chris hired is an ursaring, all dressed up in a chef's hat, apron and uniform with a small black moustache (which I'm pretty sure he drew on with a marker) and a seriously short temper.

Beth looks at the food with concern. "Excuse me, will we be getting all the major food groups?" Beside her, Harold nods ascent. "Yeah, cus' I get hypoglycaemic real bad, if I don't get enough sugar." As he speaks, the chefs face starts to contort with rage. He shoves his fanged muzzle close to Harold's face, yelling, "You'll get a whole lot of shut the heck up!" Understandably, Harold quickly runs off to find a chair.

In front of me, Owen jokes to Noah. "Have a cow." Owen is speaking softly, but not softly enough apparently, because the chef immediately shouts out again. "What was that!" Owen and Noah cringe under the force of the ursaring's gaze. He gestures to the pair with one clawed finger. "Come closer fat boy. I didn't hear you." Owen grabs his tray and stammers out, "Oh, I didn't really say anything important."

"I'm sure you didn't." The chef's tone is sceptic, but he doesn't probe Owen any further as he walks away. Instead, he switches his attention to Noah. "You! Scrawny kid!" The chef holds up a spoonful of mystery goop. "Give me your plate." Noah complies, and the chef drops the gunge into his burger bun. And, no joke, it flies right back up into the scoop. Noah's eyes widen with shock, but all the chef does is throw it back down onto the bun with more force. Noah walks away, regarding his "food" with suspicion. Leshawna attempts to make some friendly conversation with Eva (without success). She's about to make some kind of insulted comment at being given the cold, when the chef bellows in her ear, "NEXT!"

Finally, it's mine and Lindsay's turn. Naturally, Lindsay is worried about if the food will be too fatty. "Excuse me, my nutritionist says I shouldn't eat any white sugar, white flour or, like, dairy." The chef offers no reply. Unless you count crushing a passing fly in his fist, then he gave a very clear reply. I glance at Lindsay. "I don't think that's going to be a problem." I narrow my eyes disgustedly at my brown slop. My…twitching, brown slop. Great Giratina, this stuff is moving! Lindsay doesn't notice, and instead responds with a cheerful, "Cool!" I turn to the chef. "Okay, I hate to be predictable and complain, but I think mine just moved." Just like with Lindsay, he doesn't answer, and instead crushes my slop with a powerful hammer-arm. Okay…don't make the chef mad. Got it. "Right. Okay then!" I give a big, fake smile and walk over to a table.

As you can imagine, all of us find that we've suddenly lost our appetites. I swear to Arceus, one of the burgers was moving across the floor all by itself!

"Yo, my man!" Geoff calls out to Chris, who's watching us all with barely disguised amusement written all over his face. "Can we order a pizza?" Chris opens his mouth to answer, but is saved the trouble by a flying meat cleaver thudding into the wall. Geoff shoots up from his chair, pale with terror. "Whoa! It's cool G! Brown slop is cool!" The chef just glares at him, another knife held in his hand, ready to be thrown. Geoff laughs nervously. "Heh, heh. Right guys?" Everyone nods enthusiastically. I groan and bang my head on the table. It's going to be a long three weeks.

**A/N: Whew! That was a doozy! We've reached the 4000-word mark people! And now we know what all the campers' Pokémon looks are! Yeah, I didn't include the hot tub challenge. I think that'll be pretty hard to incorporate since I'm not doing the marshmallow ceremony or the camp or anything like that. Still, I hope you like! Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay, so after seeing how long that last chapter was, I probably won't post full challenges as often. I'll try to post at least once a week to keep this story going. Anyway, this chapter is narrated by the mean-queen herself, none other than Heather! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Heather's POV:

This. Is. So. Stupid! I'm all for evolution, but how in the world is jumping off a cliff supposed to help us evolve? And the worst part is, I can't even get out of this programme! I risk expulsion if I don't participate! Expulsion? Seriously? Damn you, Chris!

I push open the door to the classroom, not bothering to hide my frustration. Lindsay and Beth follow me through. Honestly, I normally wouldn't even bother with them if not for the fact that they are so easy to control. It's so much fun, it's worth putting up with their complete and utter brainlessness.

I sit at my desk behind Gwen. I narrow my eyes at the absol, currently absorbed in a book she's writing in. Or maybe she's drawing. That freak is always drawing. I try to ignore the weird goth girl and file my claws. Beside me, Lindsay pulls out a bottle of nail polish. I narrow my eyes and growl quietly in my throat. Lindsay's parents got her _another_ limited edition? Mine only get me cheap, common brands! I deserve that nail polish way more than Lindsiot! Ugh!

I stop filing and smile sweetly at the shiny buneary. "Hey Lindsay!" I chirp sweetly at the ditz. She looks at me with those innocent blue eyes. Yeuch, that look is so sickening! I hold out a paw, "Can I borrow your nail polish for a sec?" Lindsay obediently hands it over. I immediately start brushing the thin paint over my claws. Layer after layer after layer. I apply so much that you can actually see the layer of paint from the side. It makes my lovely sharp claws feel all filthy and dull, but I can tolerate the discomfort. Especially now that the nail polish bottle is almost completely empty. I hand it back to Lindsay with a cheerful, "Thanks!" and fight back a smile at the sorrowful tears pooling in her eyes as she looks at the bottle in her delicate paws. Oh, it's good to be the queen.

"Good morning students!" Well there goes my good mood. Chris is standing at the front of the room, with that psycho ursaring chef beside him, smiling at us with those blindingly white teeth. "First things first. How'd you all like Chef Hatchet's specially prepared food?" Duncan snorts. "Pretty sure food doesn't crawl across the floor."

"What was that, punk?" The ursaring, Chef Hatchet, roared at the houndour. Duncan blinks slowly at him. "I said, "Pretty sure food doesn't crawl across the floor"." Chef Hatchet's lips peel back in a wicked snarl. "Well then, if the food ain't to your liking, you'll just have to go hungry today!" Chris sniggers at this before adding, "Ooh, you're going to be feeling that Duncan, especially since today's challenge may well end up with Chef cooking dinner for you as well!" This is met with a chorus of groans and gags. I even vomit in my mouth a little. We're going to have to eat two servings of that slop? Ugh, this is going to kill me!

Chef glares at us and grumbles something under his breath. It sounded a lot like: "No appreciation." Chris clears his throat, diverting our attention back to him. He basks in the limelight for a moment, even if it is full of negativity, before explaining our next torture. "Today's activity will be a talent contest." Owen immediately jumps up from his seat, crying out, "Yeah! Awesome!" I cringe away. How can anyone be so happy? "You will have the whole day to practice your talents and will perform them halfway through when you'd normally have your last lesson." Chris continues, "Any Pokémon who don't perform will have to sing over the school intercom tomorrow morning." This is met with another chorus of protests. Singing in public is bad enough, but singing over the school intercom? I press my pointed ears flat against the Shiny black fur of my skull and hiss. I hate him so much!

Chris ignores us, as usual, and instead gestures to the brown eevee waving her paw in the air. "You have a question, Courtney?"

"Yes. How is a talent contest supposed to help us evolve?" Chris sighs and presses a paw to his face. "Didn't you ask the same thing yesterday?"

"You never answered me!" Courtney snaps, not bothering to hide her growing frustration, "It seems to me that these "activities" are just for your own amusement!" Chris gasps dramatically and widens his eyes in mock hurt. "You honestly think I would exploit my precious students just for laughs?" Silence. Then the blue mightyena cracks a smile and continues, "Okay, maybe a little. Anyway, to answer your question, Courtney, a talent contest will hone your skills, increasing your levels and bringing you ever closer evolution. It's like training, only more fun to watch." Chris gestures to Chef, who's still grumbling about what an ungrateful lot we are. I roll my eyes. "You'll be judged by our resident talent scout, former DJ, VJ and rap legend, Grand Master Chef!" Did he honestly just call Chef Hatchet "Grand Master Chef"? I don't think that psycho can even cook toast!

Katie and Sadie start jumping up and down in their seats, waving their paws in the air. I raise an eyebrow at them. I get that plusle and minun are practically born inseparable, but these two are freakishly close! And for two Pokémon who are practically the same species, they look like complete opposites. Katie is skinny and dark pink with brown ears, cheeks, paws and tail, whereas Sadie is grossly fat and light pink with black ears, cheeks, paws and tail. But the two of them still stick to each other like glue. Arceus, and I thought Gwen was freaky.

Chris seems a bit taken aback by the clones' enthusiasm and hurriedly asks them what their question is. "Can we act together?" they ask in unison. Chris waves a paw at them nonchalantly. "Yeah, yeah, do whatever you want. Same goes for the rest of you! Sing! Dance! Juggle! Anything goes! As long as it's legal." Chris finishes with a suspicious glance at Duncan, who growls quietly in frustration. Well, at least that mightyena did something right. If his personality didn't already tell you, his piercings and dog collar practically scream that he's a juvenile delinquent. Well, what would you expect from a houndour?

Chris points to the classroom door. "I've booked the gym and the sports pitch for the day so you can practice. Practice time starts now. Good luck!"

I finish putting on my ballet uniform and then head into the gym. Good thing I have after-school recitals today. I've shredded enough of my fellow dancer's uniforms to know that ballet without proper dress just doesn't look as good. Although, judging by what Chris said about today's activity, I probably will be missing recitals. Oh, well! I'll just have to shred Lucy's skirt another time.

Lindsay and Beth gasp as I enter the gym and run over to me. "Oh my gosh, Heather, you look so pretty!" Lindsay sighs, her eyes glittering with admiration. "You'll win the talent contest for sure!" Beth agrees with equal, if not even more, awe. I fight back a smirk as I bring a paw to my face and pretend to blush. That's right, admire me, worship me. After all, no one in this school deserves this recognition as much as I do.

But I can't let them know that. So I blush and smile prettily. Lindsay bounces up and down and claps her paws together as an idea strikes her. I'm a little surprised. Lindsay having an idea is an extremely rare occurrence. The only rarer occurrence is Lindsay having a good idea. "Oh my Arceus, Heather, what if we did a joint performance! That would be so much fun!" I hold up a paw and glare at her. "No way! I've been doing ballet for six years! You'll just bring down our score!" Lindsay's face falls and Beth pats her arm comfortingly. I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt. What, what I said was the truth! There's no way we can act together I stalk off with my head held high. I need to practice my routine.

After perfectly executing my routine (twice) I decide to check out the competition. I pass by Katie and Sadie, who are squealing and hugging each other. Ugh, barf! "Oh my gosh, Sadie, we're totally going to win!"

"I know, right? Katie, I swear, you're the most talented girl I know!" Katie gasps in delight. "Oh Sadie, you're the most talented girl _I_ know!" Then they both start squealing again. I try to ignore the pain in my ears and walk over to them, waving happily. "Hi Katie! Hi Sadie!"

"Hi Heather!" the two reply in perfect sync. Creepy. "You guys seem pretty confident about your act!" I continue in a disgustingly friendly voice. Katie nods excitedly "Oh yeah, it's so awesome!" Sadie clasps her paws together, "Wanna see Heather?" I nod, pretending to be excited, while a growing sense of triumph builds inside of me. Mission accomplished. Katie turns to a nearby boombox and presses one of the buttons. Jazzy music blasts out of the speakers and the clones start to dance. My horror is only matched by my sense of satisfaction. The dance is Arceus awful! It's not synchronised or even to the beat of the music. It's just plain terrible!

The two girls finish by slumping to the floor, back to back. I force a smile and clap like crazy. "Bravo, bravo! You guys are amazing!" Katie and Sadie squeal at my praise and hug each other again. I walk away as fast as I can with my paws over my ears, and finally let that triumphant smirk I've been holding in spread out across my face. If the other acts are anything like Katie and Sadie, this talent contest will be a synch!

I move on to Owen, who's chugging down a giant bottle of carbonated water. I decide to try the same "admiring friend" trick on Owen, but before I can say anything, Owen throws down the now-empty bottle and starts rapidly firing off the alphabet. "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!" Some nearby boys, who also heard Owen, cheer for the blond munchlax. Trent even runs forward and gives him a high five. "That was excellent man!" I stare at them, mouth hanging open, before exclaiming, "You're not going to do that in this contest, are you? That's disgusting!"

"Do you know how hard it is to burp the entire alphabet in one go?" Trent defends Owen, putting a foreleg around the oaf's shoulders. Owen smiles proudly, but quickly ruins the effect by bending over and boasting that he can toot Beethoven's fifth. I don't bother to hide my haste to leave.

My next study is Tyler, practicing yo-yo tricks. I don't bother to approach him after what happened with Owen and, instead, resolve to watch from a distance. At first, what I see is a little worrying. These tricks actually seem pretty good! But I end up having to fight back uproarious laughter as the stupid riolu ties himself up with his own yo-yo!

"Hi Taylor!" Suddenly, I have no trouble stifling my laughter. Lindsay walks over to Tyler, who's just managed to struggle out of his yo-yo string. He sighs. "Lindsay, it's Tyler." Lindsay places a paw over her mouth and blushes at her mistake, which makes Tyler sigh dreamily. I growl. Lindsay knows I don't approve of her dating. I can't have her having any other allegiances to her one with myself. I need her to be completely loyal to me, and that can't happen when she has a boyfriend! Unfortunately, I keep witnessing that there is definitely something between her and Tyler.

Lindsay smiles happily at Tyler. "So what are you doing for the talent contest?" He holds up his yo-yo. "I'm doing yo-yo tricks! Wanna see?" Lindsay nods and watches as Tyler tries to do his tricks again, with the same result. Only this time, he winds up tying Lindsay to him as well. I hiss with annoyance and my fur stands on end as the pair, upon noticing how close their faces have become, start making out like nobody's watching. Too bad somebody is.

I hiss again and storm off. Lindsay is so going to get it, along with her non-jock boyfriend! "Let me guess, plotting revenge?" My eye twitches. This seriously can't get any worse.

I shoot the coldest, hardest, sharpest glare I can muster at the weird goth girl who had spoken. Gwen just rolls her black eyes and continues to write in a small, leather book. Beside her, Leshawna frowns at me. "Can't you let that blondie be with her honey? She deserves that much considering you make her do her homework."

"Oh, please." I scoff, "I do my own homework. Like I'd risk my grades dropping by having the brainless-buneary do it." Gwen snorts. I want to roll my eyes and walk away, preferably with a well-aimed jibe. But, while I'm here, I might as well find out what the freak and loud-and-proud are doing for the talent contest. Not that they can possibly do anything good.

I know the "admiring friend" act won't work on these two, they hate me way too much. So, I'll play with their pride. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait until tomorrow." Gwen raises an eyebrow, "And why is that?" I grin viciously, making sure to show every pointed tooth. "I've never heard you sing before, Gwen. It'll be really interesting to find out how bad you are over the intercom." She snaps her book shut and bristles at me, baring her teeth much like I did, except she isn't smiling. "What's that supposed to mean?" I examine my nails. "Well, being the talentless goth that you are, it's obvious that you won't be performing. And you heard Chris, all Pokémon who don't perform have to sing over the intercom."

The thing about ballet, in order to be good at it, you have to be graceful, flowing. At complete ease with your movements as well as your surroundings. The same goes for being good at dodging.

I nimbly sidestep Gwen's Slash, performing a pirouette for good measure. I blink at the enraged, blue absol with wide, innocent eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that hurtful?" I'm about to launch another insult towards Gwen's lack of talent, but all that comes out of my mouth is a gasping cough as Gwen launches a Quick Attack right into my stomach. She grins at me triumphantly and I narrow my eyes. Oh, she's going to regret that. "Gwen has more talent than you'll ever have in your entire pampered life you spoiled little rich purloin!" I blink lazily at Leshawna. "If Gwen is so talented, why isn't she doing the talent contest?" Leshawna barks at me furiously. Honestly, she's _barking_ now. What is she, a wild Pokémon?

"Gwen _is_ doing the talent contest, smarty pants! And I'm willing to bet that her art will blow you silly little twirling out of the water!" I smirk. Too easy.

Gwen blinks at Leshawna, her mouth hanging open, before face-palming. "Leshawna…" She groans, "You just gave Heather _exactly _what she wanted!" The brown growlithe just grins easily at her friend. "Come on honey, she can't do anything to sabotage your act. Her knowing won't do a thing." I wave her off, throwing out carelessly, "Let me guess, you're dancing." Leshawna draws herself up proudly. "As a matter of fact, I am." My jaw drops and Gwen face-palms again. "Leshawna, I told you!" Gwen exclaims, her exasperation lining every word, "Do anything you want_ except dance!_" Leshawna rolls her eyes. "Gwen, honey, my dancing is the perfect talent for this contest."

"Can't you just, I don't know, do some fire tricks instead?"

I leave the absol and growlithe to their argument. Leshawna's dancing is even worse than Katie and Sadie's. As painful as it is to admit, Gwen is a pretty good artist, but her art comes nowhere near my ballet.

Speaking of Gwen, I need to think up a suitable vengeance for that Quick Attack. That book she was writing in…didn't it have a padlock? I smile to myself. I only know one kind of book with that kind of safety precaution.

**A/N: Wow, Heather is surprisingly hard to write! I think I did pretty okay though! The talent contest will be played out in the next chapter, along with our first evolution! I'm going to make the evolution experience for the campers a little different for the campers than how it is in cannon, but, regardless, the end results will be the same! And for all of you who are raging at me for leaving out the Awakeathon and the dodgeball game, I haven't forgotten them! I just have a really good idea on how to incorporate them into the story but, for it to work, they have to come in later. Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Justin's POV:

_Okay, let's do this one last time._ I raise my head and imagine a Water Gun heading towards me, ready to soak my fur and make it go all wet and stringy. I imagine an Earthquake shaking the ground and covering my fur with stray pebbles and dust. Finally, I picture the worst possible attack flying at me with all its ugly-inducing "glory". A Sludge Bomb. Smelly, sticky, deals damage, and has a chance of poisoning me. Poison works horrors on my complexion. I fight back a gag at the mere thought of such an attack, but it serves its purpose. Adrenaline shoots through me, every nerve crackles, my inner flame burns with anticipation. And bright, scorching sunlight shines through the gym. I smile with self-satisfaction. Tricking my mind into thinking I'm in a battle is hardly pleasant, but it does trigger my special ability, Drought. And Drought provides the absolute best conditions possible for my talent contest performance. The sunlight provides the perfect contrast to my black fur, making me glow as if I am the great Reshiram, only better looking. I mean, come on, have you seen that thing's tail? Talk about hideous! And if, for some bizarre reason, Drought doesn't cut it…well. I rub the little pouch hanging around my neck. I have another trick up my gorgeous fur.

I hold my head high as I decide to view how my (considerably uglier) fellow students are doing. Not that I feel intimidated. There's no question to who is winning this talent contest. But I might pick up some ideas to help with my performance. My talent is, of course, looking hot. And by Arceus am I good at looking hot.

I pass by Heather wearing a pink ballerina costume (that contrasts hideously with her black fur) talking to Lindsay in hushed tones whilst shooting the occasional devious glare at Gwen.

Heather and Lindsay. Without question, the two most beautiful girls in the class. I'd actually consider them to be serious candidates to be my girlfriend if they didn't have their…flaws. Lindsay, for a start, has the brain of a slowbro. That particular flaw isn't that much of a bother to me, if that intelligence didn't also apply to her taste in boys. Honestly, can someone please tell that riolu friend of hers that a red and white headband does not look good on red and white fur? And as for Heather, well, she's just a little too wanting. I'm pretty sure that if I date her, I'll wind up losing all my money just to keep her satisfied in presents, and I have a lot of money. No, I'll have to keep looking.

"Hey Justin!" I turn to see DJ waving at me. For some bizarre reason, he's decided to tie ribbons into his horns. Intrigued I pad on over to him, flashing my signature relaxed grin. "Hey DJ, what's up?" The sawsbuck gestures to the ribbons. "I'm doing a ribbon dance for the talent contest. I was wondering if I could play out my routine for you, you know, so you can tell me if it looks good." I shrug and make myself comfortable. This could be interesting.

DJ picks his hooves up gracefully, tossing his head back and forth and letting the ribbons wave elegantly in the air. He spins his head in small circles, making the ribbons form spiralling twirls. I feel a grin spread across my face. This is actually very nice! Suddenly, DJ nods sharply, cracking the ribbons above my head like whips. My grin widens. Yep, I'm officially impressed. He twirls the ribbons one last time before executing a small leap and landing on his knees, letting the ribbons fall to his sides, limp. I clap politely, smiling with content at the performance. Could I use ribbons for my performance? A little bit of accessorising could raise the bar a little. Grudgingly, I dismiss the idea. I don't have any ribbons, and any ones the girls might have won't suit with my black fur. Still, I'm glad I saw that performance.

"Bridgette…"

"Yes, Justin?"

"What are you doing?" I'm genuinely confused by the sight laid out before me. Bridgette is…standing on her front paws. Just, casually, standing on her front paws. It is…weird, to say the least. "I'm practicing for the talent contest!" The blond eevee cheerfully replies to my question, "I can stand on my front paws for twenty minutes! I think I'm on my fifteenth now!" I wrinkle my nose. I don't like going upside-down. It makes my face turn blotchy. Oddly enough, though, Bridgette seems completely fine. I shake, my head, mystified. Even more so when I think of how klutzy she is. How can someone who trips over her own feet when she standing on all four of them manage just fine when she's on only two? And the front two at that! Ugh, this is making my brain hurt. I don't want to get wrinkles from contemplative frowning, so I just shake my head again and move on. No inspiration here.

I completely pass by Harold. As if that awkward little froakie can give me inspiration on how to look even better for the talent contest. I'm not even going to bother.

I'm forced to hastily duck as…_something_ flies over my head. When I get to my feet again, I do the most important thing first and check the curls on my head. That duck was a little _too_ hasty. I don't want to mess up my hair! Arceus knows how long it takes to style it perfectly. Once I'm assured that not a hair has come out of place, I turn around to glare at the one who very nearly dealt damage to my face. The culprit turns out to be Geoff on a skateboard. He kicks one end of it, making it spin up into the air and catches it with one hand. Impressive? Okay, maybe a little. But that doesn't justify almost marring my perfect appearance! "Watch where you're going with that will you? You almost hit me in the face!" Geoff just shrugs and smiles apologetically. "Sorry about that, dude. Just practicing my skateboard tricks for the talent contest. This thing is going to be totally awesome, man! All of us performing! How cool is that?" I raise an eyebrow at Geoff's enthusiasm. I'm seriously beginning to worry about this chimchar. "Yeah, yeah, very cool. I'm just…going to go over there now." And with that, I turn around and run off.

Looking around, I notice Izzy with a boombox, with Owen watching as she fiddles around with it. Intrigued, I wander over to see what the crazy emolga is up to now. I arrive just as she turns on the boombox. Exotic music plays softly from the speakers and she holds out her arms, brings her knees together and starts swaying. I tilt my head. The movements are quite intriguing, but can I use them to make me look better?

"I call this…" Izzy begins dramatically, "the dance…of…the ekans!" At the word "ekans" Izzy suddenly hunches over and brings her arms up in front of her, curling her fingers to look like claws. She then starts making weird hissing, whooshing noises. Izzy then brings two fingers up to each eye one by one, pulling them away from her face and chanting, "Look into my eyes, what do you see? Duh, nuh, nuh, nuh! Uh dubba, dubba duh, nuh, nuh!" Okay, I'm officially weirded out. Beside me, Owen chuckles and whispers into my ear, "She's good!" I just roll my eyes and get up. Forget it. All Izzy's dance is going to make me look is crazy.

I tap my perfect chin with interest at Beth's act: fire-baton twirling. A little bit of fire performing might help me shine even more than I already do, and the Drought will increase the fire's intensity as well.

Beth has actually drawn a small crowd of spectators. "Are you sure this is safe?" Heather asks as she shies away from the flames. "It's okay," Beth smiles confidently, "I've been practicing!" She tosses one of the flaming batons into the air, then, looking confusedly at the remaining baton, shuts her eyes and tosses that one into the air as well. It flies up a few feet, before falling straight back down. The crowd, and Beth, runs back a few steps as the baton descends back to Earth. When it lands, it burns a hole in the gym floor. I purse my lips. That's gonna really cost Beth's parents. "I kinda missed the catching class." Beth admits. Walking over to look at the smoking hole, I dismiss the idea of using fire in my performance. Far too hazardous.

I decided to only observe one more act. After all, mine is practically perfect already. I don't know what made me think I can improve it. I came across Courtney, playing her violin. I smile a little. She's actually very good. The music is enough to contend with even Trent's, who I've already listened too. I tilt my head. Come to think of it, Courtney is quite talented in several areas. She's smart, brave, determined and not half-bad to look at either. Unfortunately, "not half-bad" doesn't quite cut it. I sigh. If she was only a little prettier, I'd definitely ask her to be my girlfriend. I've no doubt that she'd say yes, I mean come on. Look at me! Sadly, my good-looks comes with a price, and that price is that I can't be with a girl who's less than half as beautiful as I am. Oh, well. Maybe after she evolves.

"It's the Talent Extravaganza! Where all of you students will showcase your mad skills, and desperately try not to humiliate yourselves!" Chris has set up a sort of amphitheatre on the football pitch. Chef Hatchet sits at a table in front of the stage, while us students sit on the bleachers to watch. Chris is in his element, on a stage, spotlights shining on him, flashing his trademark grin. I think he used to be a game show host actually, but got fired because he accidentally killed one of his contenders. For some reason, I have a very easy time believing that.

"Our first act of the evening, is Justin!" Smirking, I hop down from my seat (with some relief, since Bridgette was eating chips right next to me and it was driving me nuts!) and strut up onto the stage. Just like before, I summon thoughts of battle and disgusting moves flying at me. Like a charm, my Drought kicks in and I'm illuminated by sunlight. Awed gasps and dreamy sighs sound out from the audience. But I'm not done just yet. I reach into the pouch around my neck and tightly grip the thing inside: A fire stone.

Heat blazes through me. My inner fire roars as the power from the stone feeds it. I struggle to keep from gasping in pain at the rush of energy. I can't see, blinding light is shining from all directions, blanketing my vision. The power continues to build. Just when I think I might scream in pain from the heat and the burning, it stops. Melting away as if it never came.

The audience gasps and I toss my head, smiling charmingly. Katie and Sadie faint dead away. Chris walks back onto the stage, putting one paw on my shoulder. I can't help but notice that I'm taller than him now. "Okay, I don't know what that was, but dang, you've got moves dude! And nice touch with the evolution! Chef, what'd you think?" Chef grins and holds up a card: 7. Okay, so not as good as I thought. So what? If Katie and Sadie are anything to go by, I'm even hotter now than I was before!

I head back to the bleachers and look at myself properly. My fur has gone from black to chocolate brown. I bring one of my tails over. Sleek and shiny, with a black tip. I run a paw along the fur. A lovely silky feel. I turn to Bridgette, who's abandoned her chips to gawk at me. I hold out a paw. "Do you have a mirror I can borrow, Bridgette?" My voice sounds deeper, thicker, more like syrup than honey now.

Bridgette nods mutely and hands over a small compact. I flip it open and smile. I can live with this. My snout is longer now, but handsome and tapered to an elegant point. My eyes shine sky-blue. My old curls have unfurled into a flowing wave that just brushes the nape of my neck. Oh yes, I can definitely live with this.

"Moving on to our next act, make some noise for the big guy, DJ!" I toss Bridgette back her mirror and look up at the stage, eager to see another lovely ribbon dance. Unfortunately, I'm set to be disappointed, since in a dainty leap DJ winds up tangling his ribbons up with his own feet and trips. Chris comes back onto the stage and, to his credit, refrains from mentioning the slip up. "Dainty, and yet masculine! Let's see what Grand Master Chef thinks!" Chef holds up a 2. "Not much."

As DJ trudges despondently back to the bleachers, Chris continues. "Next on deck, Trent! Take it away my bro!" Trent's act is singing a love song for someone, but I can't possibly guess who! (_cough_ Gwen_ cough_) All jokes aside though, it was a very nice song! Much better than DJ's dance! Chef gives Trent a 9 and he sits back down on the bleachers.

Bridgette's up next. She walks onto the stage on her front paws just like I saw her doing before. Unlike what I saw her doing before, however, she's also projectile vomiting all over the place! Several people on the front row get doused! Thank Arceus I'm not one of them! Bridgette herself winds up slipping in her own vomit and falling on Tyler. Unsurprisingly, Chef gives her a 2 and Chris puts the contest on hold for a bit so the stage can be cleaned.

Heather walks up onto the stage for her turn and addresses us. "Originally, I was going to dance for you. But instead, I want to celebrate class-spirit, with a collaboration." At "collaboration" Heather pulls out a padlocked book and waves it tauntingly. I narrow my eyes. Is that…a _diary_?

"So, with words by Gwen, performance by me, enjoy!" Heather clears her throat and begins to read from the book. "Okay, so I'm trying to ignore him, but he's just so cute! If they had custom-ordered the perfect guy, it would have been McHottie!"

Okay, I know I'm not the most morally sound person here, but what Heather's doing is seriously messed up! Even Chris looks shocked!

"We just totally connect!" the purloin continues, "He's pretty much the only person I can relate to here and I know it's a cliché, but I love guys who play guitar!" Suddenly, Gwen runs up to Chef, slams a piece of paper down, and sprints away from the amphitheatre. Heather's eyes follow her with satisfaction, before she snaps Gwen's diary shut with a pleasant: "Thank you!"

Next to Bridgette, Courtney mutters, "That was so mean!"

"Seriously." Bridgette concurs. Chef apparently agrees with them because the score he gives to Heather is a 0. He then glances at the paper Gwen gave him, nods, and holds up a 9. "I'm assuming this picture is Gwen's entry. Partly for the quality, and partly because I feel sorry for her, I'm giving her a 9!"

Geoff tried to do his skateboarding tricks but wound up breaking the board. Chef gave him a 3. Owen burped the entire alphabet, earning him an 8. Duncan carved a picture of a houndour skull onto a wooden plank with his teeth, winning him a 7 and a scolding from Courtney for being gruesome. "Well sorry if not all of us can play the violin like you Princess." Is his only response, along with an eye-roll. Courtney looks like she's about to snap back at him and I brace myself for yet another Duncan-Courtney argument, but Chris interrupts their little argument by calling her onto the stage. Bridgette follows her and pats her on the shoulder with a hearty "Good luck!" Courtney smiles back and begins to play. But as Bridgette walks off to leave the stage, somehow, she gets her foot tangled in one of the light cords. Frowning with annoyance, she pulls back her paw sharply, trying to get unstuck. Instead, she winds up pulling out the cord, and sending the light attached to it tumbling down. Right. On. To. Courtney. Well, scratch another potential girlfriend off the list.

"Ouch!"

"Gosh!"

"Duncan, watch it!"

I look over to the source of the mounting protests to see Duncan jumping down the bleachers, using the other students' heads as stairs. He ignores their annoyed protests and hurries over to the unconscious brown eevee. I have to pinch myself at what I see next. With uncharacteristic gentleness, the houndour picks her up in his mouth and tosses her over his back so her body is lying comfortably between the bony ridges across his spine. Then, being extra-careful not to let Courtney slide off, he walks off the stage and towards the school building, presumably to find a nurse.

I can't stop blinking. Duncan hates Courtney! The two of them fight every day! So why in the name of Arceus is he being so…gentle with her?

I shake off my confusion and turn back to the stage just in time to Chef giving Courtney a 3. Ooh, she's not going to like that.

The rest of the performances passed without a hitch. Leshawna got a 1 for her Arceus-awful dancing, Izzy got a six for her "Dance of the Rattlesnake", Lindsay got a 5 for giving Chef a makeover, Noah got a 9 for reciting an entire book chapter perfectly, Ezekiel got a 0 for his archery since he accidentally shot an arrow into Chef's shoulder, Eva got an 8 for her feats of strength, Tyler got a 2 for his yo-yo tricks, Katie and Sadie got a 1 for their dance routine, Beth got a 2 for her fire-baton tricks and Cody got a 7 for assembling a working robot out of Chef's cooking supplies and mystery food.

The biggest surprise of the night though, turned out to be Harold, who scored a 10 for his incredible beat-boxing. Though, admittedly, it was absolutely amazing. How can someone make so many sounds using only their mouth? I was just unbelievable!

Still, I can't help but think that, as I look at my even handsomer self, I'm the real winner.

**A/N: Yep, the evolving student was none-other-than Justin! And I stuck a few hints of a future love triangle later on in the story ;). No evolutions in the next chapter, unfortunately. The next chapter will probably be in Gwen's POV. Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Gwen's POV:

I'm an absol, also known as the "disaster Pokémon". My kind have the unique ability of foreseeing disasters and preventing them. Books and internet usually just leave it at that, so I've had to guess at the limits of my power based on experience. My most recent theory is I cannot foresee disasters when they harm my worst memory. Or when I'm the one behind said disaster, like when I woke up early this morning, broke into Heather's locker and filled it with durant. Ah…I can still hear her screams. Thank you, Harold, for letting me borrow your science project!

Still, despite having my revenge against that evil little miltank, I put off going to class for as long as possible. Now everyone knows I have a crush on Trent! I may not have mentioned him by name, but seriously, what other guy plays guitar in our class? Actually, I think Duncan plays. Great. Now people are either going to guess right and think I like Trent or guess wrong and think I like my best friend!

At the bell, I drag my feet to class. Several students cast annoyed looks at me for the scraping sound my claws are making. Deal with it! I'm in the middle of a crisis here!

When I finally arrive, I see the problem with putting off going to class for as long as possible. Everyone is here! Even Duncan's arrived! I avoid looking at everyone as I make my way to my seat.

"Dialga Gwen, you're even later than I am!" I reluctantly raise my eyes to Duncan, who sits in front of me. He smirks and pretends to be suspicious. "You're not trying to steal my title, are you?" I roll my eyes and grin (mostly out of relief that he's treating me like normal and not…I don't know, flirting, or something). "I'm pretty sure you'll still hold the title of "most visits to the principal's office" by the end of these three weeks."

"Yeah, especially since Gwen won't be attending this school for much longer."

It's amazing how one person can kill a good mood so fast. I study at Heather through half-lidded eyes. Annoyingly, she isn't wearing any bandages or anything from her encounter with my durant.

"What's your damage Heather?"

She narrows her eyes at me and bares her teeth in a wicked snarl.

"My "damage" Gwen, is that you filled my locker with durant and landed me in the infirmary for half an hour while they hit me with hyper potions!"

"So?"

Every hair of Heather's pelt is bristling now. I'm actually kind of surprised that they aren't firing off her in a Pin Missile.

""So?" What do you mean, "So?""

"I mean, you read my diary in front of the entire class! A locker filled with durant is the least you deserve!"

Heather opens her mouth, maybe to try and form an actually effective insult, when the door opens and Chris strides in.

"Ooh...smells like tension today! Could it perhaps have something to do with a certain someone's diary?" Chris comments, his grin widening. I groan softly. If there's anything Chris loves more than torturing students, it's drama. Half the rumours floating around the school were started by him in an effort to produce more of it. This year alone, he's orchestrated eight breakups, twelve lost friendships, nine brawls and seven clique-wars. And we haven't even gotten halfway through the semester yet.

"Today's activity will test your outdoor survival skills." Chris continues, "I'm not gonna lie to you, some of you may not come back alive." Pretty much everyone in the class falls for this, gasping in horror and fear. I glare at Chris. Just get it over with already! He raises a paw to calm everyone down. "Just joking! Ha, ha, ha! All you have to do is spend one night in this rad forest I've found! Everything you need is at your campsite. You just have to find it."

Several of us exchange unsurprised looks. Typical Chris, making us do all the work as usual. Suddenly, Chris frowns in annoyance and sighs. "And since a bunch of you babies complained to mommy and daddy about having to walk to your first activity, I've had to arrange transport for you." I smirk a little at this. I'm tempted to ask Chris how it feels for not everything to go his way for once, but I don't want to tempt fate. Chris shakes off his disappointment and once again he's flashing that blinding smile of his. Dialga, did he replace all his teeth with diamonds or something?

"Once we arrive at the forest, I'll distribute maps and compasses to two people so they can lead all of you to the campsite. Oh, and one more thing…" This can't be good. "you all are going to have to do another activity as soon as you get back! Isn't this fun?" Chris only smiles even more brightly at the chorus of groans that meet his statement.

I bang my head on the table. First, I jumped off a cliff. Then, Heather read my diary. Now, not only do I have to spend a night with 21 other Pokémon (many of them I can't stand) but I have to do another crazy activity the next day! Forget missing lessons, I'll take tests and homework over this any day.

**A/N: Yes, this chapter didn't have an actual activity in it. I decided to focus on Gwen's feelings about Heather reading out her diary (and I wanted to give Gwen's revenge a little limelight). This chapter is also **_**much**_** shorter than the others since it isn't focusing on a challenge. But next chapter will be set during a challenge and it will be narrated by a character I haven't focused overly much on. I'll post it ASAP. Please review! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Trent's POV:

I can't help the glances I keep casting at Gwen, who's sitting at the very back of the bus. I would go sit next to her, but Cody beat me to it.

I sigh and look out the window, but I'm not really paying attention to the fast-moving terrain as we drive on. I'm thinking about Gwen. And that she loves guys who play guitar. My tail gives an involuntary wag at the thought. I play guitar more than anyone else I know! Maybe that crush Gwen had wrote about…maybe it's me! But I don't know for sure. I don't know most of my classmates' hobbies, so any one of them could be Gwen's guitar-playing crush. So, I'll just have to think of ways to find out if it's me or not. Not by stealing her diary of course! That was seriously messed up of Heather! No, I'll just have to find out by the way she acts when I'm around her. And if her crush isn't me…well, I'll try not to feel too bitter towards the actual lucky guy. And, looking at Gwen right now, I can't help but think about what a lucky guy he is.

"Listen up students!" I break away from my musing to listen. "We're almost at the forest where you'll be camping." Chris continues, "And, before I forget, watch out for wild ursaring! Lost a couple of students in previous field trips here."

"Did he say there are wild ursaring up in here?" Leshawna's voice, shaky with fear, sounds from somewhere else on the bus. And I can hardly blame her for being afraid. If Chef Hatchet's a civilised ursaring, I hate to see what the wild ones are like. I shudder just thinking about those long claws which Chef uses to slice up his mystery meat.

"I had a little encounter with a wild ursaring once!" I smile at Owen, who's sitting next to me, pats his biceps. "Let's just say, his head looks real nice up on my mantle." I pat his shoulder and chuckle light-heartedly. "Don't let Chef hear you say that dude." Owen's eyes suddenly grow wide with fear and he starts turning around this way and that in his seat. "He's not here is he?" I chuckle and pat his shoulder again. This guy can be such a goof!

Izzy, who's sitting on the other side of Owen and I, suddenly perks up and turns to Lindsay, who happens to be sitting next to her. "Oh! This one time, I saw a wild ursaring eating our garbage, he had old spaghetti noodles hanging from his big huge teeth, and it looked like blood and guts!" Lindsay makes a queasy noise as Izzy continues to spin her tale. "It was so gross, and we thought he was eating the neighbour's meowth Simba but it turned out he was just lost for a week." Izzy finishes with a nonchalant flick of her wrist. Suddenly, she brings a paw up to her chin and looks at Lindsay worryingly. "Uh…you didn't eat spaghetti did you?" The ginger emolga perks up again at Lindsay's head shake and throws both fists into the air. "Good, let's go!" Lindsay audibly gulps. I kinda feel sorry for her.

We all arrived at the forest about half an hour ago. Heather and Courtney (after snatching one of the maps and compasses from Duncan) are leading the way. Gwen's trudging along in front of me, her head hanging low. Guess she's still upset about Heather reading her diary. I can hardly blame her. I take a deep breath. Okay, operation find out if I'm Gwen's crush starts now.

I pause in my walking and call after her, "Hey Gwen, wait up!" before running up to walk beside her. She doesn't look at me. Well, I'm not going to be discouraged yet.

"Can I…walk with you?"

I expect a "Whatever." Or even no reply at all. I don't expect her to frown and firmly say "No." and trudge along slightly faster. I jog over to her side again. We got along fine before now! It's probably just because of what happened yesterday.

"Hey. If this is about that whole diary thing…" Wrong thing to say. Gwen glares at me briefly before trudging ahead once again. This time, I don't try to catch up. Instead, I stop walking altogether and hang my head. Well, if that reaction doesn't mean "You're not my crush" I don't know what does.

I don't bother Gwen for the rest of the walk. At one point, I saw Katie and Sadie scarfing down some oran berries, but I didn't really pay them much attention. The only girl I really paid that much attention to was Gwen, and she clearly doesn't think of me the same way.

I decide to give Gwen a little more space since I'm still the one walking immediately behind her. I find myself walking behind Lindsay, and I also find myself listening to Heather rant. "Ugh, she is so going to get it this time!" I blink at the snarling purloin as she scratches one of her forearms. I definitely know who she's talking about, but decide to give her the benefit of doubt (though Arceus knows she doesn't deserve it all that much) and ask, "Who?"

"Who do you think?" Heather snaps at me, pointing Gwen's miserable hunched form. The claw she's pointing with is shaking with rage. "She dumped Harold's durant farm into my locker!"

"Yeah…" I reply raising my eyebrows, "but you did read her diary out loud to the entire class." At this, Heather stops dead, and the rest of us collide to avoid running into her. She narrows her grey eyes at me. "So?"

""So?"" I repeat incredulously. How can Heather be so…remorseless? "That was pretty harsh!"

"She is going down!" Heather hisses. She then turns around and stomps off. Everyone else follows her, but I stay put. My heart is pounding with worry. What is Heather going to do to Gwen now?

We arrive at the campsite about an hour later, if you can call it that. All there are are two tent rolls and a sheet of paper which I pick up. At first, everyone just stares at the two rolls, before Owen finally breaks the silence. "Uh, heh, heh, heh! There's no food here." Heh, typical Owen. I start to read the sheet of paper, as I reply, "This _is_ a survival task." I glance up at Owen, "Look at the instructions." However, it seems that Owen has already forgotten about our conversation and raises a paw to his face as he wonders aloud if there are any ursaring around. He turns to Izzy. "Wouldn't it be funny if we made some ursaring sounds and then they came?" Izzy grins back at him and chuckles. "Ha, ha! That would be so funny!" I'm going to have to disagree with them on that part. I smile at Owen as he actually starts to make ursaring noises, but my smile quickly falls off my face when Heather plucks the instruction sheet out of my hands and furiously tells Owen to shut up.

"It says we're supposed to find our own food." She says, reading the sheet. She looks around briefly. "I still don't see it." And, just like that, I'm smiling again.

"I think they mean, in the woods?" I chuckle slightly as I tell her this. It's funny that someone who acts like she's so much better than everyone else can't figure out what the instructions mean by "Find your own food."

"I'll go!" Owen volunteers, already walking into the trees. "I'm good at finding food!"

"Well," Heather remarks, rolling up the instructions, "at least this will be a good week for my diet." I blink at her in shock. Did Heather just look on the bright side? What other surprises will this day bring?

**A/N: And here we have Trent everybody! I'm not sure if I did a good job in writing him, but hopefully you like it. Next chappies going to be Courtney centric. Also, I've started working on a sci-fi fanfic along with this one, so feel free to check it out! Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Courtney's POV:

"It will be easier to just set up the tents here!"

"But over there has more tree-cover in case it rains!"

"There won't be space for both tents over there! There is plenty of space right here!"  
"Oh, so you want to get soaked, do you?"

Heather and I growl at each other. Honestly, did she not see the news this morning? It's predicted to rain this evening! I'd rather be semi-protected by trees than fully exposed to the rain in a clearing.

Bridgette steps between us. "Guys, calm down!" Heather and I both glare at her. Bridgette wilts slightly under the combined heat of our gazes but continues. "Both of you are right. The trees will give us more cover in case of rain, but two tents won't fit in the place Courtney wants to set up the tents."

"Exactly!" Heather cuts in, folding her arms and smiling smugly, "Which is why we should set up here!" I raise an eyebrow at Heather. "Did you not miss the fact that Bridgette also agreed with me about protection from rain?"

"Guys!" Heather and I look at Bridgette again, who seems to be fast losing her patience. "Look," Bridgette says slowly, "There's not enough room for _two_ tents, but there's still plenty of room for one. So, how about Heather sets up her tent here, and Courtney sets up her tent under the trees? There's an even number of us here, we can split the class in half: eleven Pokémon sleep in Courtney's tent, eleven Pokémon in Heather's tent. Sound good?"

I tilt my head, considering Bridgette's idea before nodding. "I'm game. It's a good compromise." Heather tosses her head. "Whatever. Anything to get you out of my hair." Bridgette breathes a sigh of relief and then turns to the others, who'd apparently been watching the entire argument the whole time.

"Okay guys. I'll go with Courtney, so we need nine more Pokémon. Who's with us?"

Geoff raises a hand and bounds over. DJ comes up next, then Tyler, then Eva, then Harold, then Ezekiel. Then, to my surprise, Duncan shrugs his shoulders and walks over, grumbling something about not wanting to get wet. I frown slightly in concentration as I try to count the Pokémon who chose to come with me. My frown deepens when I realise that there are only nine of us altogether. I do another quick count of the remaining Pokémon. There are eleven of them left.

"Well, now that Courtney has her team, the rest of you are with me."

I scan the other Pokémon as they go to Heather, trying to work out who's missing.

"Has anyone seen Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-idiot?" Duncan's beat me to it.

"I saw them eating oran berries awhile back." Trent calls out in reply. "Maybe they fell behind and got lost." I roll my eyes. Of course those two ditzes would get lost. I don't normally agree with Duncan, but the nicknames "Tweedle-dumb" and "Tweedle-Idiot" suit them perfectly.

"Well Courtney, you'll just have to make do with a group of nine." Heather tells me smugly. I glare at her with all the heat I can muster. "You do realise that my tent will be less crowded right?" This time, it's Heather's turn to glare and my turn to look smug. She tosses her head with a scornful, "Whatever." And turns her back decisively. My group picks up one of the tent rolls and we head off into the trees to make camp.

A couple hours later, we've almost finished setting up the tent. I shove in a pole to hold the tent door up and Bridgette does the same on the other end. Geoff inspects the tent. "Wow," He begins admiringly before turning to Bridgette, "you pitch a tent like a guy!" Bridgette gives him a look and I fight back the urge to face-palm. Isn't Ezekiel supposed to be the sexist one?

Geoff, to his credit, quickly realises his mistake and tries to amend it. "I mean, you're not all girly about getting dirty and stuff."

"Gee," Bridgette replies dryly, "thanks."

"You should be thanking him! That's a pretty big compliment eh, since guys are better at doing dirty work than girls." I grit my teeth as Ezekiel pipes up. When will the sexism end?

"What's for dinner, woman? I'm starving." Not anytime soon apparently.

I swivel my head around to glare at Duncan. "I hope you don't expect me to dignify that with a response."

The snapping of twigs diverts my attention away from Duncan. The source turns out to be Owen, wandering into our campsite holding some kind of meat. I sniff the air. Magikarp! Owen knows how to fish?

"Do I hear the sound of rumbling stomachs?" Owen jokes, waving his cooked magikarp the air. But his happy mood suddenly disappears as he looks around our camp fearfully. "There aren't any ursaring nearby are there?" Eva raises an eyebrow. "Didn't you say you killed an ursaring on the bus?" Owen blushes and shuffles his feet. "I…might have just been being theatrical, heh, heh. I'm just feeling a little jumpy since Izzy dressed up in a really realistic ursaring costume a few moments ago and scared the crap out of everyone in our camp." Duncan sniggers quietly at this but comes forward to claim a magikarp. The rest of us quickly follow.

I swallow the last of my magikarp and sigh contently. True, it's hardly my favourite food but it's a million times better than grubs and berries. I glance around at the others and frown slightly. "Where's DJ?"

"He went exploring." Geoff replies, throwing away his empty skewer, "He said something about making friends with the wildlife or something."

"Hey guys, look what I found!"

Right on cue, DJ walks back into camp with…is that a buneary in his antlers? The buneary coughs hoarsely. Great, a sick buneary. Just what we need.

"Everybody, meet my new pet, Bunny!" Bridgette regards "Bunny" with worry. "DJ, are you sure it's safe to bring a sick Pokémon into camp?" DJ waves a hoof nonchalantly. "It'll be fine once I use Aromatherapy on it."

"Why don't we just make it into a stew, eh?" DJ retreats back a few steps from Ezekiel, glaring at him. The rest of us either face-palm or roll our eyes. We've already eaten for a start, and doesn't Ezekiel know how attached DJ gets to his pets? He looks around at us in confusion. "What? It was a perfectly reasonable question eh!" I bite back a groan. Bad enough that my group has Duncan, but it has to have socially clueless Ezekiel too? Ugh!

After we've all finished explaining to Ezekiel why DJ's pet is off-limits, we start up the campfire and huddle around it, trying to keep warm against the freezing night air. A hoot-hoot calls out somewhere in the distance and Bridgette gasps in fear. "Be cool," DJ reassures her, "It's just a hoot-hoot."

"Sorry. I just get really freaked out in the forest." Bridgette looks into the fire and rubs her foreleg nervously as she replies. I feel a twinge of pity. Bridgette loves nature, she's actually a bit of a tree-hugger, but she's also terrified of the wild-places.

"This reminds me of this really scary story I heard once." Duncan tells her. I glare at him. Can't he see that Bridgette's terrified enough already? She doesn't need to hear a scary story to make her feel worse! Geoff grins at Duncan. "Awesome, tell it man!" I stop glaring and just shake my head. Why are guys so clueless?

Duncan raises an eyebrow at Geoff. "Are you sure? Because the story I'm thinking off is pretty hard-core." I roll my eyes. "Ooh…we're so scared." I mean, please. I don't want Bridgette to get anymore freaked out than she already is, but how scary can it be?

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." His warnings finished, Duncan grins as he begins to tell the story.

"So suddenly, they heard this tap-tap-tapping on the side of the car. The girl started to freak out, and by this time even the guy was getting a bit scared. So he turned the car on and stepped on it. When they got back to the girl's house, she opened the door and screamed! Because there, hanging from the door handle, was the bloody hook!" I smack a paw over my mouth to keep from squeaking with terror. Okay, Duncan had been right (for once). This story was seriously scary. And I can tell I'm not alone in that opinion. I've never seen Geoff so terrified! And, I admit grudgingly to myself, Duncan is surprisingly good at story telling. His voice is a loud, hoarse whisper, and he doesn't stutter, stumble, or backtrack. But I'm not about to tell him that. I'd rather die!

"They say that this killer is still alive," Duncan continues in that hoarse whisper, "wandering these very woods. He could be just about anywhere really. Maybe even right HERE!" Duncan's voice suddenly rises to a fierce shout and he holds up…a hook. Just like the one in the story!

Everyone screams (including, I'm ashamed to admit, me) at the sight of the hook and we all hide behind DJ.

At the sound of dark laughter, we peek out from behind the sawsbuck's great bulk. My terror immediately dissolves into rage and annoyance when I see that Duncan is practically beside himself with laughter at our reaction. My anger grows when I realise that he had planned this. He knew exactly how to get us to agree to listen to his story, and what's worse is, I fell for it! I screamed and hid and did everything he hoped to see. Ugh! I hate that stupid houndour!

"Duncan!" He stops laughing at my furious exclamation as I march over and he pulls the hook off his paw, smirking. "That was so, not funny!" In response, he replies, his voice light with mirth, "Oh yes it was! I just wish it was all on camera!"

"You are so vile!" I spit, bristling, "Do your parents even like you?" I feel a small twinge of regret at my words, and the memory of him asking Chris, _"What if your family doesn't want you to evolve?"_. I squash the regret and the memory as quickly as I can. Duncan doesn't deserve my sympathy, or anyone's for that matter!

Turns out, the brief regret I felt wasn't even needed, since a completely unfazed Duncan replies teasingly, "I don't know Jumpy McChicken, I haven't asked them lately." "Jumpy McChicken"? That's his worst nickname yet! Even "Princess" is better than that!

A hoot-hoot's call makes me jump. Apparently, I'm still a little freaked out by Duncan's story. As my heart-rate starts to slow down again, I gradually notice that I'm not cold anymore. I'm actually really warm! The next thing I notice is that I'm pressed up against something. It's this "something" that's keeping me warm. The something also has fur. And is breathing. I stiffen and bring my eyes slowly upward. Duncan smirks back at me.

I shove him away as quickly and strongly as I can, stumble out an excuse about being tired, and head into the tent. Maybe this will turn out to be just one, big nightmare.

If this is just one, big nightmare, I'm sure taking my time waking up. Which is kinda ironic since right now, I'm lying wide awake. We're all wide awake, too scared to fall asleep because of Duncan's story. The only one's asleep are Duncan and Eva, and even she's tossing and turning. I frown to myself. Duncan must be feeling _so_ proud of himself, for giving even rock-hard Eva a hard time falling asleep.

I hear someone shifting and then sitting up, followed by DJ's voice, "What's wrong, gotta go pee?"

"Like crazy, but I'm too scared to leave the tent." comes Bridgette's reply. Arceus, her natural fear of the wild and her fear from Duncan's story must make it harder for her than any of us. Poor girl.

The next thing I hear is the sound of quietly splashing liquid coupled by DJ's reply of, "Yeah, me too." Ew! DJ, that's so gross!

I listen to Bridgette's steps as she walks out the tent, before pulling my ears down and pressing them to the side of my head. Enough eavesdropping, I need sleep!

I cast a casual glance at the tent wall and gasp in fear. What the heck is that thing? It's like, some kind of demented, tiny Giratina or something! Next thing I know, I'm surrounded by fire. I rub my eyes furiously. I think I've gone too long without sleep; I'm starting to hallucinate! By the time I've opened them again, the flames are gone. And so is the tent. Everyone starts looking around, trying to figure out what just happened. Our gazes all fall on Bridgette, who smiles and waves at us nervously. I flatten my ears and bare my teeth in a snarl. Oh, she's going to get it now.

Geoff and DJ hold back a raging Eva as she twists and pulls at their grasps, trying to get to Bridgette. I, for one, don't attack her. Not physically at least.

"Great." I snap, "That's just Great, Bridgette! Now, we have nowhere, to sleep!" By the time I finish speaking, my voice has risen to a shriek. Duncan holds up a paw to placate me. "Yo, Drama Queen, relax! It's cool."

""Cool"?" My tone is icy as I reply, "It's "cool"?" my voice rises back into a shriek. "Things could not possibly get worse!" A single raindrop falls on my head and Duncan raises an eyebrow. The single drop quickly becomes a torrent. I scream in frustration. Of course, the weather reports had to be right for once!

The rain had stopped about twenty minutes ago, but now I'm soaked to the bone and colder than ever. I curl up in a tight ball in an effort to drive it out, but to no avail. I raise my head tiredly and find myself looking at Duncan. The rain had been hard on him, since he's a fire type and all. He and Geoff were the first ones to fall asleep, since they were already on the verge of fainting from the damage the torrent from before had done to their bodies. Despite myself, I pity the rude, irritating houndour.

I think back on how I'd accidently jumped into him earlier. I was so warm in that moment…

Furiously, I push the thought away and curl up tighter. No way. Nuh-uh. I'd rather die. But then again… I raise my head once more to study Duncan. He seems really out of it. Chances are I'll wake up before him in the morning. And I _am_ really, really cold…

Steeling myself, I get to my feet and trudge over to Duncan's sleeping form. Quietly, carefully, I step off the grass and lie on top of him. His breathing remains slow and steady with sleep. Instantly, I begin to feel warmer. I close my eyes and, finally, start to drift off. I'll wake up before Duncan in the morning, and he'll be none the wiser. I'll just sleep for a bit before then…

"Morning Sunshine." I blink one eye open at the voice. It takes me a few moments for my foggy mind to figure out its owner. But as soon as I do, I raise my head in a horrified gasp. Duncan just grins at me. He woke up before me. He is _not_ none the wiser.

"Oh my gosh! Ew! You, were cuddling me!" I cry out hurriedly jumping to my feet and away from Duncan.

"I was calmly lying on my back and trying to catch a few Zs. _You_ were snuggling up to me."

"You are such a human!" I hiss at him. It's the worst insult I can muster right now. Duncan just shrugs. "I've been called worse." And lies back down. I let out a little cry of rage as I stomp off. All I'd been doing was trying to keep warm! That's it! Of course he'd say I was "snuggling up to him". Ugh!

We couldn't arrive back at the bus quick enough in my opinion. Anything to get away from further teasing by Duncan. Chris does a quick headcount when we get back and frowns. "Aren't a few of you missing?" I takes me a few moments to figure out who he means. When I do, I smile and reply, "Oh, you mean Katie and Sadie? I'm pretty sure they got eaten by wolves last night."

"Darn shame."

I bristle slightly at Duncan's voice next to me. He'd better not mention anything about our "alleged cuddling" last night. I swear to Arceus, if he breathes a word about it, I will send him to the Reverse World!

Just then, Katie and Sadie come running out of the woods, gasping for air. They begin telling us how they got lost in the woods and how they had a fight, then they make-up and hug. I roll my eyes. Yep, "Tweedle-dumb" and "Tweedle-idiot" suits them just fine.

It's evening by the time we get back to the school. Chris grumbles at us for taking so long with our activity since he can't schedule another one for today. I don't really pay attention. I just grab my things and start walking back home.

"Hey Princess, wait up!" I raise my eyes to the heavens as Duncan runs up beside me.

"Ugh, what do you want now?"

"I just wanted to say, that, I'm sorry I scared you." I fight back a surprised blink. Duncan's actually… apologising? No, no it's got to be a trick! He's trying to get me to admit that I was scared! Yeah, that's it!

"I was not scared! It was completely circumstantial. And there's no such thing as a hook-Pokémon." I finish with a note of finality . If Duncan wants to get me to admit I was scared, he's going to have to try harder than that.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He concedes. I fight back another blink. Now he's saying I'm right? What game is this guy playing? He then grins. "Or ARE YOU?" and he holds up that stupid hook again. I scream in fear, but it quickly becomes a frustrated cry. "I hate you!" I then run off as fast as I can. I don't want to hear another word from Duncan as long as I live!

I hear the sound of running feet behind me and brace myself for another round of teasing. I sag with relief when it's Bridgette and not Duncan who ends up running beside me.

"I saw that. He never gives you a break, does he?"

"Perish the thought." I reply with an eye-roll. Bridgette turns her head around so she's facing behind us and frowns. "It's so weird. He just can't seem to decide if he wants to be nice to you or mean." I let out a short bark of laughter. "Bridgette, he wasn't being nice at all to begin with. He just wanted to see me scream again." She frowns at me in confusion. "So, what, did he stuff you in a trash can the other night or something?" I frown back at her, equally confused. "What are you talking about?"

"The night of the talent show! Did you wake up inside a trash can instead of the infirmary?" I shake my head, properly mystified now. "No, I woke up in the infirmary. They gave me some potions and a bandage for my head, and I went home."

Bridgette narrows her eyes at me. I raise an eyebrow back. What's she getting at? Suddenly, her eyes go wide and she whispers, "You don't know."

"Don't know what?" Bridgette steps closer to me and whispers in my ear, "After you were knocked out, Duncan ran over to you, put you on his back, and carried you to the infirmary. I've never seen him act so careful, not even when he's carving! It was like, he was afraid if he dropped you, you'd smash to pieces on the floor!"

I stop dead and my jaw drops. Duncan was actually… nice to me? He brought me to the infirmary? The nurses did say something about a really nice and gentle boy who brought me to them on his back, but I just assumed they meant DJ or Geoff! And now I find out it's Duncan? Duncan the juvenile delinquent, Duncan the punk, Duncan the bully carried me carefully to the infirmary?

I cast a glance over my shoulder, though I already know that he'll be well out of sight by now. I small smile touches my mouth. So Duncan does have a heart, even if he hardly ever shows it.

**A/N: Wow, this was a long one! A fair bit of DxC featured in this chapter, including the famous "alleged cuddling" scene. Next chapter will be in Duncan's POV, and it's Phobia Factor! Please review.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Duncan's POV:

I try not to wince as I shove open the door to the classroom with my head. After Princess ran off in a hissy fit from my teasing last night, I accidentally stuck my hook into my neck. A potion helped it heal, but it's still a bit sore.

I drag myself into my seat and look up at Chris. Is it just me or does his grin seem even wider today?

"Good morning students! I hope you all slept well?"

"He almost sounds like he cares." Gwen grumbles.

"I don't!" Chris cheerily replies, "But enough about your sleeping habits. Let's talk about today's activity. And man oh man, is it a good one!"

"Can you at least give us time to write our wills first?" Noah drawls. Chris ignores him and continues to explain the challenge. "Today's activity is a little game I like to call, Phobia Factor! Prepare to face, your worst fears!"

"Our worst fears have faces?" Lindsay cries out in terror.

"He means we'll have to do the thing we fear the most Lindsiot!" Heather snaps at the shiny buneary.

"Thank you, Heather." Chris continues, "Now let me explain the activity in more detail. While you were all out on your little camping trip, I took the liberty of asking your family members what your phobias are. I'll call you up one by one to face you fear. If you successfully face your fear, you get poképuffs instead of Chef's cooking! If you fail, then you'll have to stomach an extra course."

I try not to let my panic show. My fear is, well… embarrassing to say the least. Arceus, I don't think I could stand it if Courtney, uuh, I mean, the others found out. I'm a bad boy! I'm not supposed to get scared! Especially not by… those things. Argh, this is the worst challenge yet! Although, I think with a small smirk, it would be funny to find out what Princess's worst fear is…

Chris's smile suddenly melts into a frown. "And before any of you start complaining about how this doesn't have anything to do with evolution, let me tell you that plenty of Pokémon evolve because they are really, really scared." Chris's grin returns with blinding vengeance as he continues, "Also, to include some class bonding time, I'll leave you all here to tell each other your worst fears. Keep in mind that your classmates are going to find out in about half an hour or so and that there's no point keeping them secret. Later!"

With that, he walks out the door and leaves us sitting in awkward silence, wondering who will be the first to cough up their worst fear. Well it sure as Giratina ain't gonna be me! I'm kinda hoping that everyone will just sort of forget about me and I'll be spared my inevitable humiliation for a bit longer.

Finally, DJ sighs and stands up. "I might as well go first. I'm scared of snake Pokémon. They just freak me out!"

"Any particular snake Pokémon?" Noah asks. DJ shakes his head. "I'm scared of all of them. Ekans, arbok, seviper, they're all terrifying!" Tyler walks over to DJ and puts a paw on his shoulder. "I feel you! Chickens give me the creeps dude." Gwen raises an eyebrow at the jock's confession. "You're afraid of chickens?" I snigger and smirk at him. "Wow that's, that's really lame man."

"Well, my mortal fear is being covered by bug Pokémon!" Beth squeaks, "I mean, just imagine they're slimy bodies and tiny feet crawling all over you! And the bug bites! All the bug bites…" I snigger a little more as Beth faints from sheer terror at the mere thought of her fear. Man, that's just pathetic!

"I'm afraid of ninjas!" Harold raises a hand as he pipes up. I raise an eyebrow at him. "I thought you wanted to _be_ a ninja."

"I do," He admits, "but right now I'm not skilled enough to compete with real ninjas." Heather rolls her eyes. "Oh please. Ninjas are small time compared to sumo wrestlers!" She shudders. "Now _those_ are what I call deadly warriors."

My jaw drops. Heather just admitted her greatest fear? Wow, you learn something new every day.

Heather glares at Gwen. "What about you, weird goth girl?"

"What's my worst fear?" Gwen raises a paw to her chin as she tries to think. "I guess, being buried alive."

"Walking through a minefield," Lindsay speaks up, "in heels!"

"Flying man, that's some crazy stuff!" Owen shuts his eyes tight at the prospect of flight. "Uh-huh, I would never go up in a plane," Izzy agrees, "never!"

Holy crap, even Izzy's scared of something. I wicked grin tugs at my mouth. Just think of all the pranks I could pull with this newfound knowledge!

"I'm scared of hail." I turn to Geoff as he admits his worst fear. "It's small but, deadly dude!"

"Pretty sure rain is worse for us fire-types Geoff." I remark dryly. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat. "Rain kills us slowly man. Hail can take you out way quicker!"

Bridgette cuts off our debate by admitting that her worst fear is being left alone in the woods. I roll my eyes. Wow, I'm so surprised. My eyes do grow wide though when Katie and Sadie admit that their worst fear is bad haircuts. I face palm when Lindsay changes hers to that as well. Seriously, bad haircuts? Ugh, typical chicks, nothing's more important than how they look.

Cody taps his chin, trying to think what his worst fear is before eventually deciding on defusing a time bomb under pressure.

Princess smiles smugly as she says confidently. "I'm not really afraid of anything."

"Baloney!" I cough into my fist. She swivels around in her seat to glare at me and I just grin back. Ha! I've heard her scream in terror twice and she jumped into my arms because of a hoot-hoot! I'll admit, that last one came as a surprise (though not an entirely unwelcome one). "Not really afraid of anything". Pfft, yeah right!

"Oh really?" She asks me coldly, "Well, what exactly is _your_ phobia, mister know-it-all?"

Ah, crap.

I feel my blue eyes grow wide and my pulse begin to race as I look around the classroom nervously. Courtney's smug smile returns as she notices my obvious panic. For a moment, I think about lying, or just not saying anything at all. Oh, whatever. They're going to find out anyway.

I slump over and mumble as quietly and quickly as I can: "Uh, Ce-Celine Dion music store standees."

Cody chuckles and holds a paw up to his ear. "Uh, exsqueeze me? I didn't quite get that."

Trent grins in amusement. "Dude, did you say, "Celine Dion music store standees"?"

I hide my face behind my paws. See, this is exactly why I didn't want anyone to find out about my fear!

"Wow, your biggest fear is an inanimate object. You are so tough." Noah drawls sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

"Ooh, I love Celine Dion!" Lindsay squeals happily. For once, I'm grateful that girl has makeup for brains. Means she can't process what an embarrassing fear I have.

Lindsay then looks down at her lap in confusion and raises a paw slightly. "What's a standee?"

"You know," Trent tells her, "that cardboard-cut-out thing that stands in the music store."

"Don't, say it dude!" I snarl at Trent furiously. Seriously, there's no need to make my fear even more embarrassing right now!

"Kind of like a life-size but flat Celine." Trent continues, undaunted by my obvious rage.

Courtney grins. "So if we had a cardboard standee right now…" Arceus, she'd better not!

I clamp my paws over my ears and squeeze my eyes tight, yelling, "Shut up! What about you guys?" I finish, opening my eyes again. Anything to get the subject off me.

"Okay, well I hate Mr. mimes." Trent answers calmly, "Like a lot."

Princess rolls her eyes.

"Alright Courtney, you're afraid of something. Spit it out." Trent, obviously seeing the eye-roll, demands.

"Nope! Nothing!" Courtney responds cheerfully.

I snigger and mummer to Geoff and DJ from behind my paw. "That's not what she said last night." Hey, she makes fun of me, I make fun of her.

"Duncan," She says in that disapproving tone of hers, "did you ever consider that maybe I was just humouring you and your stupid story?"

"Sure, sure Princess, whatever floats your boat."

"Shut up!"

"If you two are done with your little lovers' quarrel…" My skin feels unusually hot beneath my fur at Noah's words. I roll my eyes, trying to brush it off, but I can't resist a glance at Courtney. I'm surprised to see her shifting awkwardly in her seat instead of glaring daggers at Noah. Her dark eyes flick over to me and I hurriedly look away.

"Anyway, I'm scared of becoming dumb." Noah continues.

"Mine is not being allowed to work out in the gym." Eva says gruffly. I roll my eyes. Why am I not surprised?

The machop suddenly stands on top of her chair and glares at us with narrowed eyes. "And if any of you make fun of my fear, I'll knock you into the next decade! Got it?" Everyone shakes their heads nervously. Arceus, that girl really needs to take a pill!

"Well, I'm scared of spinarak, ariados and galvantula." Leshawna calls out confidently. "Those freaky Pokémon put the "creepy" in "creepy crawly"."

"I think my worst fear is Eva, eh." Ezekiel speaks up. "Since I face her every day, does that mean I can sit this one out?"

"Not until I've beaten your years of home-school out of you for that insult!" Eva roars and makes to attack Ezekiel. She probably would have turned him into rattata purée if DJ hadn't held her back.

Chris chooses this exact moment to walk back into the classroom and grins at us. "Well, have we all bonded and shared our fears? Great! First up to face their fear is Beth. Everyone outside to the sports pitch!"

"Wait, everyone's going to watch us face our fears?" Gwen cries out angrily. Chris just keeps grinning annoyingly. "Only for the short ones!" Everyone groans. Ugh, this bites.

I actually feel a little sorry for Beth. She has to jump into a kiddie pool completely filled with goomy. Now, I like to think that I'm okay with this kind of thing, but even I'm feeling a little queasy looking at all those squirming maggoty things.

Someone grabs my shoulder. My eyes widen when I see that it's Princess, looking in horror at the kiddie pool. I study her out of the corner of my eye. She looks pretty freaked out right now, way too freaked out for someone who's supposedly no afraid of anything. Plus, she's holding onto me. Plenty of material to tease her with…

I glance back down at her paw on my shoulder. Maybe I'll give her a rest, just this once.

Courtney and I aren't the only ones totally grossed out by Beth's challenge. DJ actually throws up! And Owen faints!

I fully expect that Beth will chicken out and have to eat that extra course of Chef's "food". I mean, come on, she fainted a while ago just talking about it! Instead, she shrugs nonchalantly and jumps right in. My eyes widen as she pops her head back out of the pool, her mouth full of gross goomy. I recoil a little at the sight. Man, that's just gross.

Lindsay, Katie and Sadie get called up next. They wear expressions of pure terror as Chris produces these seriously Arceus ugly brown wigs for them to wear for the whole day. Owen, being the goof that he is, nicks one and does a weird ballet thing before tripping over a chair. I roll my eyes. Seriously man?

I go from being annoyed at Owen to feeling sorry for him. He and Izzy have to ride a rusty old broken-down plane for ten minutes. And Chef will be driving. Although… it's pretty priceless seeing him in that hostess uniform with the curly blonde wig. My lip quirks up into a smirk at the sight of it.

At that moment, Harold comes back from the bathroom soaking wet. I raise an eyebrow. "What, did you fall into the toilet or something?"

"Actually yes. A bunch of ninjask ninjas ambushed me in the bathroom. I tried to scare them with my mad num-chuk skills, but I accidentally hit myself in the head and fell into the toilet."

I burst out laughing. My stomach actually starts to hurt and I have to hold it I'm laughing so hard. I mean, he knocked himself out _and_ fell into the toilet! Arceus, not even Chef dressed up as a woman is this funny!

"How can you laugh at this?" I manage to tame my chuckles into quiet sniggers as Princess begins to scold me for enjoying myself. "Izzy and Owen must be suffering from simultaneous heart-attacks up there!" At this, my sniggers dissolve back into uproarious laughter. "Th-that's not why-why I'm laughing," I gasp out, "H-Harold, knocked himself out in the bathroom, and, and fell in the toilet!" I lose my balance and fall over, still laughing. Princess turns away, muttering something about how immature I am, but not before I see the smile tugging at her lips. If I wasn't laughing so hard, I'd be grinning triumphantly right now. Finally, I found something that suck-up finds funny!

Izzy and Owen's plane lands and they both shoot out the door, kissing the ground. Noah approaches them and remarks to Izzy dryly, "You're an emolga. Your kind literally fly all the time." Izzy pauses in her make-out session with the grass to quickly respond, "Gliding is way less dangerous than going up in a giant hunk of metal." Before going back to kissing the ground again.

I almost bust out laughing all over again at Chef's next costume: a giant galvantula for Leshawna's fear. It doesn't look very real, but the loud-and-proud growlithe still runs away, screaming at the top of her lungs. Hmm, maybe I should bring my pet spinarak to school sometime and "accidentally" leave it in her locker…

Heather visibly shakes with terror as she looks at the hariyama sumo wrestler standing opposite her. I guess he looks kind of intimidating, but he's way too fat for me to take seriously. This guy wouldn't last a week in juvie!

With an enraged battle-cry, the hariyama charges at Heather, who immediately curls up into a little shivering ball. I flick my eyes over to the sound of scribbling to see Gwen furiously sketching Heather's terrified position. I grin. Nice.

Sadly, instead of beating the devious purrloin to a pulp, the hariyama trips over her and bounces on his own fat until he's out of view.

Chris sticks Bridgette on the bus that will take her to the woods from yesterday, informing her that she will have to spend six hours there alone. "Good luck, Bridgette!" Courtney cries with a smile and a wave as her friend steps onto the bus. I wonder if she'll wish me luck when I start my challenge… I shake my head furiously, banishing the thought. What am I thinking? I don't need her to wish me luck, and even if I did, she'll probably be laughing too hard to wish me anything.

Gwen looks on nervously as Chris piles sand onto the lid of the clear glass container he put her inside for her fear. Trent leans down to talk to her. "There's enough air in there for an hour, you only need to do five minutes." Chris kind of ruins Trent's attempts at reassuring his crush by adding, "As long as we decide to dig you up."

"Not funny, Chris!" Gwen snaps.

"Sheesh," Chris frowns with annoyance at Gwen's attitude, "take a pill."

Trent holds out a walkie-talkie over the opening in the container. "I'll be listening the whole time," he tells Gwen as he passes it down to her, "just yell for me if you panic and I'll dig you right up." Man, what a sap.

Gwen smiles nervously back at him. "Goodbye cruel world." Trent slides the opening closed and Gwen continues to stare at the ever-growing pile of sand on her container.

Once Gwen is well and truly buried, we all leave to get to the next poor sucker's fear. I turn to Trent when I see that he's not following. "Hey Elvis, you coming?" Trent doesn't tear his gaze away from the big pile of sand. "Nah, I'm staying here in case Gwen needs my help." I shrug. "Suit yourself." And follow the others, leaving the love-sick rockruff with his goth-absol-in-distress.

DJ stands hunched up with fear as he stares at the snake Pokémon in the tank opposite him. Now, when he first explained his fear, I didn't see much to make fun of. I mean, I'm pretty sure arbok can crush steel drums! But this… he's terrified of an ekans lo longer than my fingers. And houndour have pretty small fingers!

Still, DJ's one of my best friends, so I clap my hands together and yell out to him, "Yeah, you can do this buddy!" Come on, he's the tallest, strongest Pokémon I know, even more than Eva! This is nothing!

DJ's expression only grows more fearful as he looks at the ekans. At one point, it blinks and he screams, retreating back a few steps and hunkering down in terror, crying out and pointing at the ekans. "It blinked!"

"It means she likes you!" Sadie calls back. Courtney is a little less nice about it. "It's the smallest ekans ever DJ, come on!"

"Yeah, but it's slimy and scaly!" DJ retorts, "Slithery-" But Courtney's had enough of his whining. "You're being a ridiculous coward DJ! Suck it up!"

Everyone, even me, shakes their heads at Courtney. Seriously, that was a bit much. Courtney looks back at us in confusion. "What?" Yeah, I can definitely forget her wishing me luck.

Cruel though it was, Courtney's "encouragement" does at least _some_ good it seems, since DJ then takes a deep breath, reaches a tentative hoof into the tank, and pulls it back out, the ekans sitting on top of it.

We all cheer for him, but the happy atmosphere is kind of dampened by Courtney saying smugly, "See? Fear is only in the mind." Oh, shut up already, Princess!

At one point, a terrified Trent runs past us while being chased by a Mr. mime. Pretty sure it hasn't been five minutes yet dude. Oh man, Gwen's gonna be pissed!

"Just talk to him brah!" Chris yells into that Arceus-damned megaphone of his, "And ask him to go away!" Chris checks his watch. "Okay we've got two minutes before Gwen's done. Cody, you're up!"

Chris puts Cody on the bus that had taken Bridgette away. "Alright Cody, in the woods is a garbage bomb that's going off in exactly ten minutes from the moment you arrive. Everything you need to know to defuse it, is on these schematic blueprints." Chris informs the pichu whilst tossing him the blueprints in question. "What?" Cody cries incredulously, "No way, I can't do that!"

"Then, uh, I suggest you find a safe place to hide once you get there brah!" Chris chuckles unsympathetically. "Later dude!"

"Wait!" Cody calls after a retreating Chris, "You're not gonna come and watch?"

"No way!" Chris yells back, "You'll be defusing a live bomb dude! Why do you think your challenge is in the forest and not on campus?" With that, the blue mightyena runs off.

Finally, it's my turn. Whoop-de-doo.

My legs feel like jelly as I look at the cardboard cut-out of Celine Dion the jynx. An involuntary shudder runs along my spine. One of those things gave me a paper-cut on my neck when one of my arcanine-brothers dragged me to the music store once when I was five. Cardboard-cut? Whatever, the point is, it bled a lot and I really freaked out. I probably would have still been able to get over it though, if my brother hadn't also bought a whole bunch of the things and stuffed them in my closet and under my bed. I actually ran into my parents' room and spent the night on the floor beside their bed (have you ever tried sleeping cuddled up next to two arcanine? Let me sum it up for you in two words: deadly, and uncomfortable), just to get away from the nightmarish things. And, to top it all off, my ma tripped over me in the morning and I woke up screaming from a nightmare where Celine Dion was trying to cut my head off. My brother got grounded for, like, a month afterward though so that's a plus. Still, that experience left me utterly terrified of anything Celine Dion ever since, especially standees.

Someone steps up behind me. I flick my eyes over to them and groan inwardly. Courtney. I saw how she dealt with DJ; I don't need her screaming in my ears while I'm remembering the worst moment of my life!

But her voice is gentle when she does talk to me. "She's pretty, she's nice." Pretty? Has she not seen Celine Dion?

"Just one hug," Chris interrupts, "and you're done." He makes it sound so easy.

I turn back to Courtney. "Th-that looks really, real man." I hate the way my voice is breathless from fear. Despite her acting nice before, I still fully expect Courtney to start making fun of me any second.

"Dude, she's made of cardboard! Get in the game!" Well if it's not Courtney, there's always Tyler. "Hey, it's okay if you can't do it." Courtney assures me with a gentle smile. Is this the same girl who told DJ to suck it up, or her identical twin sister?

I look back at the standee and sigh. I can't do this.

Something rests on my paw. I look down and my eyes widen with shock when I realise that its Courtney's paw. I feel a grin spread across my face and I look up at Courtney. "Alright, I'll try."

"You can do this!" She tells me with a grin to match mine.

"Okay! Okay." My confidence already begins to fade as I look back at the standee. Steeling myself, I shut my eyes, run forward and wrap my arms around the cardboard-cut-out.

Cheers shout out as I lift it off the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief, I set it down and smile at Courtney. She jumps up with her own cry of "Woohoo!"

Then comes the biggest surprise I've had all day: Courtney, running up and hugging me while shouting, "Duncan, you're awesome." My smile broadens to grin, and I wrap an arm around her.

"I did it!" I say to myself, partly triumphant, partly just to reassure myself. I hugged a Celine Dion music store standee! The very thing that has haunted my nightmares for eleven years!

Unfortunately, Courtney eventually realises that she's hugging me and hastily lets me go. Still, I can't help but notice her broad grin as the rest of the guys keep cheering for me.

**A/N: Wow, that was longer than expected! The next chapter will probably be shorter, and it will have our next evolution! Please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Courtney's POV:

I don't know what came over me. I mean, I know Duncan carried me to the infirmary, and that's nice. But still, 90% of the time he's a complete and utter jerk! When I first started encouraging him and being nice, it was just to repay a debt! I thought, he helped me, I'll help him back! I should have stopped the moment I touched his paw and told him he could do it. I should have just left it behind when I cheered for him. But no… I had to run up and hug him. Arceus, what was going through my head Although, having his arm around me actually felt a bit nice… gah! Not again!

I decide to put a little distance between us after the hug. If I know Duncan, he'll go to teasing me about it in approximately five minutes if I'm lucky.

I pass by Geoff relaxing in a sunchair on the sports pitch (where did he even get a sunchair? And who uses one of those things on a sports pitch?) and try to be as quiet as possible as I sneak past him. Geoff had seen me hug Duncan, and they're best friends to boot! I can't have him telling Duncan I'm hiding from him, that'll just make the teasing even worse!

As I sneak past, I notice a glalie wearing a headset stealthily floating up to Geoff. I frown at it, wondering what's going on. Then the glalie shudders slightly and breathes a thick mist into the air which hangs over Geoff like a cloud. I slump with pity for the shiny chimchar. Right… he's afraid of hail.

Geoff opens his eyes as the cloud casts his shadow over him. As soon as the first pellets of ice start to fall, he jumps up and begins screaming in terror. He tries running away from the hail cloud, but the glalie just blows it along with an Icy Wind, making it follow Geoff all over the place.

Heather, Leshawna, Beth and Lindsay come over to watch. Heather, Leshawna and Beth seem at least a little worried for Geoff (Well, maybe not so much Heather) but Lindsay just points at the hail cloud and coos, "Look, that cloud is following him. Aw, it's like his own baby cloud." She starts jumping up and down and crying excitedly, "I want one too! Here, cloudy cloud!" I roll my eyes at her idiocy. I swear, sometimes I wonder if Lindsay even has a brain under there.

I notice Chris and Trent relaxing across the field. Chris is speaking into a headset like the glalie's, undoubtedly giving it instructions on moving around the hail cloud.

Curious, I walk over to them. I arrive just in time to hear Trent ask Chris if he can have the glalie blow the cloud lower and pelt Geoff harder. I recoil slightly. I thought Trent was a decent Pokémon! Since when did he have a cruel streak? Chris apparently agrees with me, because he replies, "You are one sick dude! But yeah. Frank, blow the cloud down a bit will ya?" I turn around to see the glalie doing just that. Geoff screams even louder and Trent smiles. "Haw, that's awesome." I frown at him, though he can't see me. What does Gwen see in this guy? Come to think of it, shouldn't Trent have dug her up by now?

Trent brings a paw up to his face, looking confused. "Hey, do you ever feel like you've forgotten something?" he asks Chris. "Sometimes," Chris replies, "I usually ignore it and the feeling goes away. Heh, heh, watch this! Frank, bury him in hail!" Trent's eyes grow wide with horror as Chris finishes his sentence. "Bury? Aw crap! Gwen!" Having finally realised that he left his crush buried alive in the sand pit for way more than five minutes, Trent runs off at full speed. Remind me to never date that guy, if he's prone to completely forgetting if someone is in mortal danger.

I start to make my way back to Geoff so I can give him some encouragement, when a distant boom suddenly sounds through the sports pitch. I tense and look in the direction the boom seemed to be coming from. What could be making that sound? Maybe some wild voltorb or electrode or something? Oh, wait, Cody's challenge was diffusing a bomb wasn't it? And Chris had said that it was a trash bomb too… mental note: stay well away from Cody until he's showered. That is so gross!

Bridgette steps off the bus, shaking. I run over to my friend. "Bridgette, are you okay? What happened?" Bridgette looks at me with wide, terrified eyes. "Th-there was this m-m-monster, it was groaning, and walking towards me w-with its arms outstretched and-and-and it looked like it was covered in t-t-trash!" I sigh and place a paw on Bridgette's shoulder. "Bridgette, that was probably just Cody. We heard the explosion from his trash bomb from all the way over here!" Bridgette stops shaking and raises a paw to her face. "Now that I think about it, there had been a pretty loud boom about ten minutes before I saw the monster." She grins sheepishly at me. "Oops."

"Yo Bridge!" I turn to see Geoff running over, waving. Close behind him are DJ and… Duncan.

I cringe and quickly tell Bridgette that I need to go to the bathroom, before running off. I'm still trying to postpone the barrage of teasing that awaits me.

I happen to run into Noah facing his fear. At least, I think that's what he's doing. He and Lindsay are sitting at two separate desks, writing on slips of paper. If I squint, I can see that they're test papers. Chris sits at a third desk, watching the pair, smiling smugly. They both finish at roughly the same time and hand the papers in to Chris. I narrow my eyes as he marks them with a red pen. What is going on here? Wasn't Noah's fear becoming dumb?

"Alright!" Chris says finally after he finishes him marking, "The results are in! Noah, you got…" Chris holds up the paper, which is littered with crosses and with a bold red "F" written in the top right-hand corner of the page. "an "F"!" Chris announces cheerfully. "And Lindsay got…" Chris holds out another paper, this one covered in check-marks and with a bold green "A+". "an "A+"!"

Lindsay claps her hands in delight while Noah turns pale and starts looking frantically back and forth between the two papers. "Wha… it's not… it can't… how… wha…" Chris grins sadistically at the speechless treecko. "Noah, you are officially dumber than Lindsay!" Looking at Noah's stricken expression, I should feel sorrier for him. But I can't, not after that ridiculous "lovers" comment from earlier. And also, Noah is just plain rude. Almost as rude as Duncan! Almost.

After witnessing Noah's humiliation, I decide to head down to the school gym to see if anyone is facing their fears in there. Instead, I'm met with the sight of a distraught Eva, pounding desperately on the doors of the gym and screaming her head off. Oh yeah… her fear was not being allowed to exercise. I back away as slowly and quietly as I can. Judging from what Eva said earlier about beating up anyone who made fun of her, I don't think she'll take kindly to me watching her in this state either.

"That's it Ezekiel, just walk right around that corner…" I flick my gaze toward the sound of Chris's voice. He's nudging a bewildered looking Ezekiel just around the corner. I cringe with pity for the rattata. I can see exactly what is going to happen here.

I hear Eva's enraged shriek just as I round the corner and out of sight. At the sound of her rage, I abandon all pretence of stealth and break into a run. No way am I going to hang around with Eva in rage mode!

Everyone stands outside a fenced off enclosure with a small box inside. Tyler leans comfortably on the fence as Chris begins to talk. "Alright gang, only two more fears left. Tyler, for your challenge, you need to get into this pen for three minutes, with these torchic." Chris lifts the lid off the box, revealing it to have a torchic mother and her chicks inside. It's actually kind of cute!

"You can do it Tyler!" Bridgette calls out. "Yeah," Duncan adds (thankfully he doesn't seem to have noticed me yet), "unless of course you're torchic."

Once inside the pen, Tyler curls up into a ball and rocks back and forth on his heels, biting his lip, eyes blank with terror. Seriously Tyler? The torchic haven't even left the box!

"I'm not sure we're getting anywhere on this one." Chris remarks, looking at Tyler's panicked state.

I walk up to the fence to talk to the riolu. "Tyler, you've only got to stay in here for three minutes! Quit being such a girl! You have to do this, or you're going to have to eat Chef's food."

Harsh? Maybe. But being harsh worked with DJ, who's to say it won't work with Tyler? _But being nice worked with Duncan _a small voice in the back of my mind whispers. Rather than make me reconsider my approach, the voice only serves to make me panic. Ugh, now that I've been harsh two Pokémon, Duncan's going to have even more ammo for when he teases me. nice going Courtney!

One of the baby torchic hops out of the box and waddles up to Tyler. His eyes follow it, terror stricken. The torchic hops onto his foot. He screams. And starts to glow. I watch with wide eyes as Tyler's growing form shifts and bends and pulses, changing shape and size. The light is hurting my eyes, but I can't look away. Finally, the light dies and instead of a red and white riolu cowering in a pen, there's a red and white lucario cowering in a pen.

"Wait, why did Taylor just glow like that? And who's that guy?" I bang my forehead against the rails of the fence as Lindsay asks yet another stupid question.

"Alright Courtney," I look up to see Chris grinning menacingly at me. I feel my heart sink. "You're up."

Truth be told, I'd hoped Chris had been bluffing when he said that he'd asked our families about our worst fears and that he was just going off our confessions in the classroom. And even if he had, I'd hoped that my family would have lied. Duncan thinks his fear is embarrassing? Mine would be utterly life destroying!

Sadly, Chris really had talked to our families, and mine hadn't lied, which is why I'm standing, weak kneed next to a huge tub filled to the brim with green jelly. I quiet snigger, followed by a voice laced with amusement, draws my attention away from the tub. "You're afraid of jelly?" I give Duncan my fiercest glare. Of course _he'd_ be the one to joke about it, mister macho with his fear of cardboard cut-outs!

"Shut up! Only the… green kind! It's like… sugary, jiggly, snot!" My rage does nothing to curb Duncan's amusement, much to my annoyance. And Chris isn't helping.

"You can face your fear and dive straight into this pool of jelly, or, eat Chef's food!" I sigh and start climbing the ladder up to the diving board over the jelly. "This is insane!" I protest, "I could seriously die doing this!"

About halfway up the ladder, I almost slip as Duncan of all Pokémon shouts up encouragement, "That's it, keep climbing!" Well, I guess I did help him. Maybe he's trying to pay off a debt?

Finally, I reach the top of the ladder and make my way to the edge of the diving board. I raise a paw to my mouth and start to shake. "Like you said Courtney, it's okay if you can't do it!" More encouragement. Who is this guy and what's happened to Duncan?

Oddly enough, he's actually making me feel… better. At least, until my ears pick up Bridgette mummering to him, "It is? But she'll have to stomach Chef's cooking!"

I sob tears its way out of my throat and I cover my eyes with my paws. "Oh, I can't do it! I'm coming down!" My voice is heavy with unshed tears.

I trudge despondently away from the tub of jelly as Chris cheerily announces, "All of you who successfully completed your fears, come to the classroom for poképuffs! The rest of you, Chef's sludge awaits in the cafeteria!"

I sniff with sadness in the girl's bathroom. I'm so embarrassed! How can I be so weak! I feel tears start to pool in my eyes and I shake my head furiously. Stop it! You're pathetic! Show some confidence Courtney! I glare at the mirror and even manage a smile. But then my composure immediately starts to crumble. I start to wail and immediately slap myself. I can't cry. I _won't_ cry. I am Courtney Davies, and Courtney Davies never cries! Never! So why are tears starting to spill from my eyes?

I turn on the tap and splash my face with cold water. I'm probably just tired, yeah, that's it. It's been a long day. I just need to get some rest, that's all!

Once I've dried the water (and okay yes, maybe a few tears) off my face, I finally step out of the bathroom. I head down the hallway towards the cafeteria. Maybe throwing up will bring me back to my senses.

"Princess, wait up!" I throw my head back and groan as a certain houndour bounds over to me with, for some reason, a plastic bag clenched between his teeth. Once he's caught up to me so he's walking by my side, he flashes me a teasing grin. "What, you're not happy to see me?" He asks around the bag, feigning hurt. I sigh and glare at him half-heartedly. "I'm really not in the mood for you right now Duncan." He shrugs.

Suddenly, he bounds around me so that he's standing right in front of me. I squeak in surprise and clumsily stumble to a halt to avoid running into him. He drops the bag he'd been holding to the floor and nudges it towards me. "Thought you might want some."

My gaze flicks from him to the bag, wondering if this is a trick. Guessing my train of thought, her rolls his blue eyes and opens the mouth of the bag with his paw. And inside… are poképuffs.

He plucks one out and takes a bite, swallowing the treat. "There, it's safe. Pranks aren't all I think about you know." I snort at this but reach in a paw and pull out a puff. I eat it quickly and reach to take another but freeze and instead frown at Duncan. He raises his eyes to the heavens. "Ugh, what are you suspicious of now?"

"Why are you being nice to me?"

He blinks in surprise at my question. "Uh, you helped me remember? When I was facing my fear."

"But you helped me when I was facing mine!"

Dang it, Courtney! Don't think about that! But my vision is already starting to blur. I hurriedly take another poképuff and eat it with my face turned to the ground. No way is Duncan seeing me cry.

Thankfully he doesn't seem to notice my sudden rush of emotion, because he just snorts and replies to my statement. "Yeah, and what a load of good it did you!"

"You still tried." I mumble around a mouthful of food.

"Since when do you talk with your mouth full?" Duncan asks, sounding surprised.

"Since when do you care about manners?" I retort, still not looking up. The tears haven't disappeared yet.

I hear the soft pad of paws and then I feel Duncan standing beside me. His grey snout comes into view as he tries to look at my face. I hurriedly turn away. No way is he seeing my tears. No way am I letting him see any weakness coming from me. No way!

"Are you crying?" Great, he saw.

I shake my head furiously. "Of course not! I never cry!" But my voice breaks even as I protest, giving me away. I shut my eyes in a desperate attempt to hide the way I know they're shining and to try to trap the tears inside them.

I feel Duncan come closer. "Arceus, you're actually crying."

"No, I'm not!" The sob in my voice is clearly audible. Duncan huffs. "Let me guess, you're ashamed because you couldn't jump into that green-jelly-pool." I open my eyes with surprise and the tears trickle down my cheeks. I furiously wipe them away with one paw and glare at Duncan, daring him to tease me. Instead he just sighs with exasperation.

"For Palkia's sake Princess, it's not like you're the only one who couldn't face your fear! Heck, I would've torchicked out as well if you hadn't helped me like you did." I redirect my glare to my paws. "I was really harsh with DJ and Tyler in case you've forgotten. How can I face either of them when I couldn't even face a stupid fear of green jelly?"

"Come to think of it, why were you harsh with them but nice with me?" I shrug. "Bridgette told me about how you helped me after the talent show. Figured I'd help you back."

Suddenly, Duncan shoves his head right in front of my face. I squeak with surprise and stumble back. He is smirking. "Tell me, was that hug also part of the debt?" I blink and groan inwardly. This is it, the moment I've been dreading.

"I was just proud of you, that's all." I can't keep my eyes from flicking away from his face. "Whatever you say Princess." I can hear Duncan's smirk as clearly as if I'm seeing it on his face.

He nudges the bag of poképuffs towards me. "Here, you can finish these. I'm not that hungry anyway." I stare after the houndour as he saunters down the hall and out of view. I pull out another poképuff and chew on it thoughtfully. That wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. Wonder why?

**A/N: And that's a wrap! I know that Tyler's evolution is probably more fitting in a chapter in his POV, but I thought what Courtney went through in this challenge is way more interesting than what happened with Tyler, even if he's evolved. I'll write a chapter in his POV next time, to give you an idea of how he's reacting to his evolution. I'm going on vacation soon, so I'll probably be a bit off schedule for the next few weeks. Please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Tyler's POV:

I hold my head up high as I walk to school. And why shouldn't I be proud? I'm the second Pokémon in my class to evolve! I can just imagine what this could mean for my sporting prowess. Goodbye first-aid kits, hello trophies!

Of course, it would've been better if I hadn't had to deal with those torchic. I know my fear seems lame, but have you seen those feet? And those beaks! Peck hurts man! And those eyes… those beady, dark eyes… an involuntary shudder runs down my spine at the mere thought of those freaky birds.

Come to think of it, it would also have been nice if I hadn't had to explain to Lindsay that I'm still Tyler. Still, it was worth it to hear her call me hot. And if anyone knows what hot looks like, it's Lindsay.

I sigh at the mere thought of her sparkling blue eyes, her adorable pink fluff, her sweet smile… yeah, Lindsay definitely knows what hot looks like.

I reach the entrance to the school building and push open the door. I feel a confident smile pull across my face as is step into the entrance hall. Look out world, because Tyler the riolu is gone, and in his place is Tyler the hot lucario!

Suddenly, my feet slip out from under me. I yelp with pain as I lose my balance and land on my butt, finding myself eyelevel with a "WARNING: WET FLOOR" sign.

I push myself to my feet and dust myself off. Okay, so maybe not the best start to my life as Tyler the hot lucario, but it's not my fault that they make those signs so small! Seriously, how am I supposed to see something that only reaches up to my knees?

"Hey guys, what's up?" I practically shout as I walk into homeroom. Geoff grins and holds out his fist for me to bump. "Rock on with the evolution man!" Lindsay perks up and waves to me. "Hi Taylor! Uh, Tyler!" Heather shoots a glare at her, but Lindsay doesn't notice. I wink at her and shoot her with a finger gun.

"Alright dude, stop showing off your new look." Chris frowns at me, annoyed that I'm stealing his limelight, "I need to tell you guys today's activity."

"Oh, joy." Gwen grumbles under her breath.

Chris reconstructs his face into a grin. "We're going on another field trip! Last year, I took a group of students on an excursion to this sweet place called Bony Island. It was awesome! I mean, sure, a couple of the students got mauled by woolly bidoof and I got sued, but other than that, awesome!"

I cringe slightly at Chris's story. What's a woolly bidoof?

"Bony Island is on the far side of a lake," Chris explains, "We'll take the buses to the lake, and there, I'll explain the activity. Now…" Chris grins at us wickedly. "Who's ready for their evolution?"

**A/N: Okay, I know I said I'd be off-schedule but this chapter is… well, it's really short. I just included it to show Tyler's feelings about being a lucario now. The next chapters will be their typical length from here on out. Next chapter's in Geoff's POV. Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay, I know I said this chapter will be in Geoff's POV but I have a new plan for how this will play out that I think will work out much better!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

Trent's POV:

"Class, today's activity is an experience you'd usually only be able to have in summer camp: a canoe trip. Lucky you!"

I cast a glance over at Gwen as Chris speaks. She hasn't spoken to me since yesterday and I forgot to dig her up from her fear challenge. She threw her walkie talkie at my face when I finally remembered her. She was also pretty ticked off that I abandoned her to face her fear alone. Hey, that Mr. Mime wouldn't leave me alone!

I force myself to pay attention to as Chris continues to explain the challenge.

"You'll be paddling your canoes across the lake, to Boney Island!" As he says "Boney Island" Chris makes his voice go all spooky and dramatic as he gestures to a map of the island he'd set up, with a path marked on it in red.

I look out across the lake at the island and gulp. That spooky voice fits it perfectly. Boney Island is shrouded in mist, and the sheer cliff face facing is has three caves arranged and shaped so that it looks exactly like a skull. Creepy.

"When you get there," Chris drops his spooky voice and grins at us as he points out the marked pathway on the map, "you must portage your canoes to the other side of the island. Which," Chris grins wickedly at us as he adds gleefully, "is about a two-hour hike through treacherous, dense, jungle!"

"We've gotta pour what?" Geoff asks, scratching his head. I just stare at him in shock. Seriously Geoff? That's a complete Lindsay question!

Chris frowns at Geoff, looking annoyed. ""Portage"." He says slowly, making air quotes with his claws. The pink chimchar just stares back at him dumbly. "Dude, walk with your canoe!"

"Oh…" Geoff says in understanding and Chris regains his smile.

"When you arrive at the other end of the island, you'll build a rescue fire that will be judged by me. If I find it unsatisfactory, I will have Chef hatchet extinguish it, and you'll have to rebuild it all over again. Move, students, move!"

Everyone runs forward in a mad dash to claim a canoe, but we end up coming to a screeching halt when Chris calls after us again. "Oh, wait! One more thing I should mention. Legend has it, if you take anything off the island, you'll be cursed forever!" Chris's spooky voice returns, and thunder and lightning can be heard, even though there's not a cloud in the sky.

"Yeah, ha ha!" Owen breaks our nervous silence with his sudden enthusiastic cheer, "A cursed island! Woo!" The rest of us just stare at him. How is a cursed island reason to party?

"And what's the curse Chris?" Noah asks sarcastically, "A skitty attack?" Chris shrugs. "Don't know. Maybe you should bring back a souvenir to find out! Now, get in your canoes, pick a paddle partner, and let's have some fun!" We all head to the canoes much more hesitantly now. I don't know about the others, but for me, it's the "Let's have some fun" comment that's putting me on edge. Chris's idea of "fun" is way different from mine.

I head down the wooden steps to the beach and look up to see Gwen making her way down right above me. I give her my friendliest smile and her eyes widen with surprise. Arceus, she has such beautiful eyes.

I gesture with my own eyes to the canoes lined up on the sand and she begins to smile at me. My heart pounds. Does she still like me? I know I screwed up, big time, but I really want to make it up to her! I just need her to let me…

Suddenly, Cody comes out of literally nowhere and throws one of his tiny pichu arms around Gwen's shoulders. "Come on Gwen! You and me, open water, what do you say?" Gwen's expression of downright shock turns to a furious scowl and she stomps on Cody's back painfully. But before I can renew my offer, Lindsay and Beth each grab one of my shoulders. "Trent, you have to come with us!" Lindsay begs me, tugging on my arm. I shoot a longing look at Gwen as I get dragged away, but there's nothing I can do. So much for making it up to her.

I ready myself with my paddle as I wait for Chris to give us the signal to get going. I try to catch Gwen's eye, but her gaze is dutifully set on Boney Island. I wish it was set om me instead.

"On your marks," Chris begins dramatically, "get set, paddle!" So I start paddling.

About halfway there, Lindsay, who's sitting in front of me, suddenly stretches and falls backwards so her head is in my lap. "You don't mind if I work on my tan, do you?" I grin. "I don't mind one bit." Okay, so I'm in love with Gwen but Lindsay is just plain _beautiful!_

We enter the misty shroud around the island. I glance around to see sharp rocks jutting from the water. I shudder as the Boney Island skull comes into clear view. This place is giving me some seriously creepy vibes.

When we dock at first, all everyone can do is look around in silence, at least until Izzy and Leshawna arrive. The excitable emolga immediately grins at all of us. "Okay. Did you see that skull?" She jumps out of her canoe before continuing, "How cool is that? It's like this place is haunted or something!"

The wind whistles around the us, sounding oddly like screaming. I shudder. Haunted, right.

"Let's just get this over with." Gwen says, shoving her canoe onto her head. The rest of us follow her example and rush into the jungle. I'm also kinda running away from Izzy if I'm being honest. I heard her talking with Leshawna in the lake about cooking kommala, and then laughing when Leshawna told her that killing a kommala was illegal.

Everyone runs through the forest at full tilt, and then some! Turns out, the island is even more creepy on the inside, with skulls on sticks lining the pathways. I swear that one of them is a rockruff skull, but maybe that's just my terrified mind playing tricks.

Suddenly, a huge tree collapses in front of us and Cody yelps with fear. Fearsome yellow eyes peer at us from the bushes and I gulp down my terror. The bushes rustle quietly, and Cody whispers to us fearfully, "I think I saw something."

The rustling grows louder, until out of the bushes… Giratina, what are these things? They have protruding tusks, buck teeth, and they're the size of a rhyhorn!

"Monster bidoof!" Cody screeches in terror and everyone runs for their lives, screaming in absolute terror. What the Arceus _is_ this place?

My heart plummets into my stomach when we reach a dead end. I glance back at the bidoof, fully expecting them to leap on us and tear us into tiny bite-size pieces. But, to my shock (and huge relief), they turn around and leave.

"Hey, they're leaving!" I cry. Right before a bunch of swanna with razor sharp teeth poke their heads out of numerous alcoves. Me and my big mouth.

Owen audibly gulps. "Oh man." And we're back to running and screaming.

Eventually, we manage to hide behind some trees and the swanna fly right past us. I breathe a sigh of relief, hoping giant killer pachirisu don't jump from the trees and rip our throats out.

Izzy is the first to recover. "Come on, it's not over yet! We still have to burn stuff!" I raise an eyebrow at her. She really seemed to relish the word: "burn".

We make our way through the jungle at a much more relaxed pace. This is a huge relief to me, since all the running was starting to seriously wear me out. I look determinedly ahead. No way am I letting this stupid island scare me anymore. Hey, why is the ground getting closer?

"Uh…" I call nervously, "don't want to panic here but I'm shrinking!"

"Dude, it's quicksand." Comes Noah's drawling reply.

"Right, how am I supposed to know what quicksand looks like?" I shout back indignantly, "It looks just like sand!"

The sand has started to reach my chest. "Uh-oh…"

Lindsay gasps in horror. "Trent's stuck! I'm coming Trent!" I hold up a paw to stop her, crying out, "No don't!" Too late.

I turn away from the splash of sand accompanying Lindsay's jump into the pit. She yelps with shock upon realising that she's sinking into the pit and smiles at me. "I'm stuck too! So didn't see that coming!" She sound's weirdly happy about it.

I face palm, but don't really have that much time to wonder at Lindsay's stupidity as the sand reaches my neck. "Help! Somebody, help us!" That's all I can get out before the sand covers my mouth and quickly goes over my head. I stick a paw out of the sand and Lindsay grabs hold of my tail. Almighty Arceus please, please, please have someone help us! No one does and the sand covers my paw. But I'm not ready to die just yet!

I reach out of the sand again and my fingers find a vine. I quickly pull myself out of the pit, taking Lindsay with me. Everyone cheers for our survival, though I'm more focused on getting back on land.

Cody (who looks kinda out of it for some reason) wanders over to us with his jaw hanging open, one eye closed and his head lolling. I glance up at the vine I'm still holding. Oh… he must've tried to swing across on it and rescue us. Even though the plan didn't work the way he'd planned it, it still saved mine and Lindsay's lives. I smile gratefully at the pichu.

"Woah!" I breathe, still high on adrenaline, "Hey thanks bro." I hold out my paw for Cody to low five, but he misses so I settle for placing it on his shoulder. "You're a lifesaver." That seems to shake him out of his stupor, and he gives me a surprised smile. "I am?" Lindsay saves me from answering by throwing her arms around his neck and calling him her hero. "Where did you learn to do that?" Her voice is heavy with admiration as she breaks the hug. "You know," Cody said bashfully, "I watch a lot of movies."

"This is all very touching guys," Gwen breaks in with a roll of her eyes, "but we've still got to finish this stupid activity Chris set up!"

Arceus, I love that absol.

**A/N: I'm back from the dead! Okay, so this particular episode has quite a few good arcs in it** **so unlike the others, this challenge will be made up of three separate chapters! Next chappie will be in Geoff's POV. Please review!**


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